Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1903-03-27
.L|FEA CAMP Wears
An Interesting Letter From
Captain Pershing.
WINNING THE MoRos
HE HAD PREVIOUSLY CHAsTIsED
THEM.
Now Endeavoring to Gain the Friend
ship of the Natives and is APP
parently Succeeding.

parently Succeeding.
Capt John J. Pershing 18th Infantry.
formerly come ted with the insular bu-
reau of the War Department. and who has
since had several years experience in the
Philippines, has written a personal letter
to friend in this city giving many inter
esting details regarding conditions in the
Moro country, where he has been in COM
mand for some time past. His letter IS
dated at Camp Wears. Mindanao. January
3. 1907, and is In part as follows:
Nothing gets past the outposts into this
camp. either day or night. A few nights
ago they killed dog trying to sneak in,
and night before last a Moro stumbled
against an outpost in the dark and got
killed. So you can see we are isolated, and
are maintaining strict quarantine. You
will perhaps be interested in anything
about Moros and the Moro situation with
out going back of the beginning of the
campaign last year. 1t will be only neces-
sary to say that at that time we found
very large clement around the lake oppos-
ing u.s. in fact, all the Moros except those
living en- the northern third of the lake
coast. with a center of population near
Marahu
you know the story Of Bayan. and 1
neeO not go INTO mat. II was severe lcS-
son. but they did not seem to profit by 1t,
as they should have done. After the bat
tie of Bayan General Davis ordered me
here and placed me in charge of Moro al
officer The first question I asked him
was. General, what do you expect OF me!
Well he said. Pershing, you seem to
know how to handle these Moros and
want YOU to make friends of them for us
Then he went on to say that 1t might be
possible to visit many places around the
lake by VInta and so on. In short. peace
and friendship without force was the
watchword, and it was in line with my
own views as to how we should proceed.
The Moros in the vicinity were encour-
aged to come into camp to work, building
sheds for horses and mules, furnishing
wood and grass. A market every day In
the week was established. invitations to all
sultans and dattos to visit camp were sent
out, and I spent all my time as peace
maker; in fact, I have done nothing else
since I came here May 15, except during
the Maciu campaigns. and not without re-
suits which are more or less gratifying to
me.
Mutual Confidence Necessary.
81 have at all times worked on the theory
that it Is necessary to establish feeling
of mutual confidence between ourselves and
these people If we ever expect to be able
to govern them without lot of trouble,
and In order to do this we must meet them
personally; that is. some one man, repre-
senting the American government and car
rying out a fixed policy-as far as policy
may be outlined. considering our limited
knowledge of Moro character, customs and
necessities-must know them and they him.
It has, therefore, been my earnest en-
deavor to demonstrate to them that we
are their friends; that we have no desire
to make a conquest against them. nor, as
they feared, and as some yet fear to carry
off their women and children in slavery
a single article of theirs Without
paying for 1T. Now to understand the diff
Guilty of convincing them Of all this you
should bear in mind that they have never
known anything else, nor expected any
other treatment, than something entirely
contrary to it. In their own wars they
have always done things, and always ex-
pect others, If powerful enough, to do
things differently. Neither could they un-
derstand that we wanted to build roads in
order that their produce might be more
easily taken to market and that our traders
might come and buy what they have to
sell. 1t was impossible for them to COM
things from, to them, apparently benevo-
lent reasons. First Of all, to have them
understand and to accomplish as much as
has already been accomplished 1t was i'm
portant first that I should make them be-
lieve In me, and that has taken some time
and considerable study on my part
Moros' Ideas of Government
that is. that they understand from time i'm
memorial nothing but a one-man govern
ment. and this thing of dealing with differ
emit men representing the same power or
authority, whatever may be their rank or
position, is an incomprehensible idea to
them. With them it Is a government by
the individual, not particularly what he
represents. Fortunately 1 have been able
to keep every promise and to have every
statement have made, and, in fact every
thing / have done, approved. Now they
never ask, as they did at first, my authori-
ty for making statements promises.
They regard me representing the Presi-
dent Of America, and as especially sent
here to command this Moro district Often,
too. they used to answer. Yes. we believe
what you say, but what will your successor
do? We will not know him nor have con-
fidence in him as we have in YOU l an
swer by saying l will be here for a long
time to come. tell you these things mere
ly to illustrate their character They like
condolences. and are always pleased to be
taken into my back tent for private talk.
AS Regards Religion.
"Moros. as are all Mahomedans, are jeal-
Gus of their religion That was one of the
points they raised against us. They said,
You will want US to eat pork and wear
hats and our women will have to wear
skirts your women do. and it is only by
dint of continuously assuring them and
demonstrating to them the contrary that
they have begun to think otherwise 1 have
always said. We have Mahomedans in
America and a representative OF the Sultan
of Stambul lives near the President of the
United States In Washington, moreover we
never interfere with other peoples religion
for people have the same God and the same
origin and are brothers ETC., etc. Natural
ly suspicious they were and many are vet
suspicious of us. particularly SO. however
from their experience with the Spaniards,
who used catch them m in
parts of the island and baptized Them and
the Spanish idea of civilizing them was
that it could only be done at the end of
musket. government wholly of fear was
their theory. The Spaniards had no SYM
pathy and little patience with Moro and
Spanish residents tell some most blood
curling tales. many of which are true, of
Moro atrocities. But there is Moro side
to 1t. The Spaniards, so say the Maros,
used to ruthlessly shoot them down on roads
and trails and the Moros retaliated when