The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1900-08-14
John T. McCutcheon's Manila Letter II
Chicago Reeord.)

John T. McCutcheon's Manila Letter in
Chicago Reeord)
mere are no more insurgents as far
as Official recognition goes. 1t is now
the custom to speak of native armed
roaies as ''iadrones, robbers and
bandits" Nearly every day we hear
OF our soldiers encountering some band
OF ROBBERS, after which there is a fight
when ends in an American loss of one
more killed.
IN nrief, the military situation, as
we near 1T at headquarters, is about
inns everything is quiet There are
q rev OF these bands of 'ladrones' or
iopoers that occasionally run into
ooxiIe " our troops out in the hills, but
ol l everything is quiet"
ms Is Inc official or headquarters
view of the present state of the rebel
non everything quiet-all the PROV
lnces occupied by American troops
natlVe municipal governments running
III All the towns OF those provinces in
when our troops are garrisoned-Only
le" bands of robbers" and Ia
drones still under arms. and they con-
tlhulnS the fighting because they find
II easier TO prey on the people than to
Worh-the mass of the people DESTROYS
Vi peace and only contributing food
anu money TO these bands because they
rear tnem-the insurgent organization
disrupted beyond hone of ever again
concentrating long enough to strength
en- ltSei1 Tor new and cohesive cam
palSn-ports open and commerce re-
sunned-the enemy's ammunition prac-
tleai!y exhausted, their arsenals cap
tufed and the coasts guarded by gun
poats-AguinaldO a fugitive so remote
~ hidden that his influence is moi
TO be feared.
nave endeavored 70 find out the
mlltary situation in Luzon and the
/ southern Islands as it exists today. The
! results obtained have been from my
! own observation in the Camarines. Al
bay, Leyte. Samar. Mindanao. Cavite
Manila, Tarlac and PangaSanan anC
from reliable officers in Tayakas, La
| guna, Union, Ilocos, Abra and Other
northern provinces, as well as in Cebu
! NegrOs and Fanay.
lind that the canvass hardly sus.
Jalns the optimistic reports to be haC
| at Headquarters in Manila In Other
! words, there is still a good deal of fight.
ing going on; there is a widespread
almost general, hatred of the Ameri
cans; there are approximately 90 00i
rifles still in possession of the Filipinos
and there are numberlesS forces OF
armed men operating in many dis
| tricts.
That the II surgent army as an or
ganized force holding definite limita-
tons of territory and maintaining ar
! orderly and tangible formation is
broken and disrupted there is no doubt
Instead of knowing that the enemy
holds certain towns and districts, and
that fight is necessary to possess
those districts, our troops can now plan
no movement or expedition with the
certainty of making contact with an
armed force.
Reports which tell of the presence of
large bodies of armed FiIipinos in the
vicinity of garrison towns frequently
are brought in, but when a force of
Americans goes out to find them they
are gone-that is, if the A nerican force
is strong one.
But let a small body go out, and the
woods and hills will be found alive
with rifiemen and bolomen. The Fill
pinO method of warfare has changed
from their old, defiant methods TO a
new and more insidious one, that is as
much if not more to be feared.
1t will be remembered that Tarlac
was taken without shot, and that
our troops occupied in turn all the
provinces of the north with fewer than
a dozen fights of any consequence.
From that time on il became a foot
race after the demOralized bands that
were leaving the Tarlac lowlands
There was no established capital, no
machinery of government. no grand
army and half the cabinet surrendered
or We're captured.
Officially the revolution was crushed,
but General Conception, Aguinaldos
chief of staff, uttered dissenting opin-
ion.
The insurgents, or robbers, or la
drones, still have between $4,000 and
10000 rifles. / have no record of the
number we have captured. but General
Bell, one of the most active and sue
lands, admits that he has captured only
about 400 altogether.
An official bulletin was once posted
in Manila which detailed the surrender
of 500 arms and men at BayOmbong.
/ have since learned that only forty
rifles were really captured, while the
general who surrendered stated that
there were 500 in the province.
In all the capture of arms there has
been a very small proportion of Maui
sers. Assuming 5000 to be a very lib
eral estimate of the rifles we have taxi
en-, it is. therefore, seen that the Fill
pinos still have nearly 10000 in their
possession.