The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1900-06-12
Otis ON The PHILIPPINES



OF course, he said, General MacAr-
thurs present army could not furnish
a guard to protect every Filipino house
hold from the LadroneS: to do that
would require a force of no less than
200, 600 troops, and even then the task
would occupy many years. AS mat
ter of fact, he said, Spain had spent
several centuries in the effort to stamp
out the Ladrones in the Philippine
group, and there was reason to believe
that these brigands were scarcely more
numerous now than they were during
the Spanish occupation, when the is
lands were nominally at peace with
Spain.
General Otis was confident that con-
ditions would steadily improve and that
little by little these robber bands would
be driven away Meanwhile he admit
ted that it was often dangerous for Fill
ipinos of the better class, whose inter-
ests naturally lay in American sover-
eighty, TO admit their preferences, for
they were subject in that case to as
sassination. to the loss of property and
to persecution, instigated by various
elements in the population to whom
General Otis did not hesitate to reit-
crate his statement made repeatedly
since landing at San Francisco, that
the Filipino rebellion as an organizes
movement was dead He spoke of the
insurgents who still retained their arms
as robbers and "guerillas."
When his attention was called to the
views of Judge Taft, the president of
the Philippine commission, in the Ma
Mia dispatches printed this morning, he
expressed the opinion that they were
satisfactory He said that the United
States would be compelled to maintain
in the Philippine for considerable pc
riod as large an army as was there at
present
THE army said he, will be needed
as a measure of repression until the
robbers and guerilas are stamped out.
The maintenance Of this large force is
necessary owing to the vast extent of
territory which we must cover. We
have established ourselves in Negroes
Cebu, Samar and many of the other is-
lands in addition to Luzon, and are to-
day actually exercising effective au-
thority over more territory than Spain
ever did"
General Otis said that practically all
the leaders of the insurrection were
either dead, captured or pacihed. The
recent capture of General Pillar del Rio.
he thought, had probably been effected
with the consent of that general. So |
far as Aguinaldo himself was concern
ed, General Otis was not inclined to |
credit the report of his death. In his |
Aguinaldo was dead or living. |
as his influence had been completely |
destroyed. "Aguinaldo,' said he. sis !
probably In hiding somewhere in the I
of northern Luzon, but he ,
carries little more influence than any |
other individual at large. He is dis |
credited and a dead issue"
Asked as to whether in the event of |
more acute complications in China I
troops could be spared from the Phil
ppines for service there General Otis
replied, Possibly, possibly
General Otis left tonight for West
Point, where he will report In person to t
Secretary Root. He is completely in
The dark as to his future assignment to
1uty. He will remain at West Point
with the secretary until after the grad
hating exercises are ever, and will re-
urn to Washington with the secretary,
arriving here on Thursday morning,
when he will again call on the pres-
lent and make a report in detail of the
operations of the army under his COM
nand, and submit such suggestions and
recommendations as shall seem to him
proper. He will leave here again on
oh fJ6 hfr at
Rochester, where extensive prepara-
ions are being made to celebrate his
on Friday.