Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1904-05-20
ARRIVAL At MANILA
Mr. Curtis Describes His I'm
comfortable Experience.
AWAITED TIE DOCTOR
GERS HAD 10 BE INSPECTED.
Lines Running to the Philippines
Few American Vessels to Be Seen
-Transmission of the Mails.
By WILLIAM e. CURTIS.

Special Correspondence of The Evening Star and
Chicago Record Herald.
MANILA, April IS, 1904.
It takes fo-ty-eight hours to cross from
Hongkong to Manila, and 1t Is usually
very disagreeabIe voyage When the north
east monsoon is not blowing. the southeast
monsoon is hard at work, and both mon
soons are strong winds which prevail alter
nately during the year and stir up consid
cradle commotion in the water. This with
conflicting currents and tides coming from
different directions, that meet under the
bottom of the ship, cause a great deal of
distress to the passengers, and those who
are compelled to make the passage fire.
uuently will tell you that the British chan
mel is not !, circumstance for seasickness
to the China sea.
And yet almost the only way we can reach
our insular possessions is by going thou
sand miles OF more out of our way to an
English colony and by a foreign steamer
The Pacific mail steamers from San Fran
cisco come down from Nagasaki once a
month and stop at Manila on their way to
Hongkong-every third steamer of the regu-
lar line-and the Northern Pacific steamers
do the same once month. Their sailings
are arranged so that they come about the
same time, and then for whole month
there are no arrivals from the United States
dl tiiio poIl SACSPl oAO al my eiohol'oAs'
Must Transship at Hongkong.
Passengers from Manila who take one Of
these American lines to the United States
are required to go more than 1000 miles
out of their way and remain over at a hotel
at Hongkong for ten days and sometimes
two weeks, while the steamer is discharg-
ing and taking on cargo; and they have
that opportunity only once month. because
the steamers of neither of the American
lines stop there on their homeward voyages
In the last six weeks there have been ex-
actly four steamers from the United States
arriving at this port Two were army
transports, the Sheridan from San Fran
cisco and the Fitzpatrick from New YORK,
which do not take ordinary passengers and
two more merchant ships, the Korea of the
Pacific mail line and the fremont OF the
Northern Pacific line, both vessels or loooo
tons. People who desired to go to the
United States on an American steamer
could take either of these, stop over at
Hongkong ten days, and reach San Fran
cisco or Tacoma about forty days from the
time of their departure from Manila
The mails are even worse. If my letters
the Philippine Islands. No mail left TINS
the fault of the government of the United
States / have been in a great many coun-
tries, in all parts of the earth. but nave
never yet found civilized community SO
limited in postal facilities as the people OF
the Philippine Islands. No NAL left TINS
town for the United States between the
Dist of FEBRUARY ana the JlH VI Mdf Cii ohV
yet we are considered an enterprislng ma
ton.
The difficulty is our helpless dependence
upon foreign nations for facilities of trans
portation ard communication. At present
all our mails have to go to HongKong'
/ OCO miles or more out of their course,
and they have to lie there for seVerals days
awaiting an opportunity to be sent across
the Pacific Ocean, for, as l have already
said, and / want to say again, and keep
on saving it there is no direct steamship
communication from the Philippine Islands
to the Unit / States whatever.
No Direct Line.
No passenger can go direct from Manila
to any of our Pacific ports. nor freight, nor
mails can be sent direct except by the mill
tary authorities upon an army transport.
If Governor Wright of the Philippines de-
sires to communicate with the President of
the United States he is compelled to ask
foreign ship to carry the message. and the
message goes around the two long sides OF
a triangle more than thousand miles out
of its way even under those condltlon
Congress ought to provide direct and speedy
communication between Manila and san
Francisco or some other of our racine
Dorts-a steamer every week or ten days
and pay well for it, as the Germans 90, SO
that the steamer could afford to take pas
sengers and freight at reasonable rates
There are exactly five American ships In
service on the Pacific-the Korea, Siberia,
Shamut, fremont and China. Five more,
the Mongolia, Manchuria, Minnesota, pa
kota and Montana, are under construction
and will be ready within the next year or
two.
Just now, and to furnish a striking Illus
tration of our marine helplessness. the Pa
cific Mail Company has been crippled by
having the Japanese ships that have been
sailing alternately with its own Withdrawn
by that government for use as transports,
which reduces the usual sailings from San
Francisco to Hongkong from three 10 TWO
month and makes 1t all the more difficult
for a man or a letter to reach or leave Ma
Mia.
The German Practice of Substituting.
There is a German line of steamers to
every port in the world In which Germans
are represented, and by liberal subsidy
the government makes UP any deficit that
the ship owners may suffer. When Ger
many gets new colony, the government
at once provides means for getting to and
fro and for sending malls and freight back
and forth, for the benefit of its merchants
and manufacturers. England has always
done the same, but that Is an old story.
Germany gives us a new one, having only
recently undertaken the commercial lnva-
sion of the whole world. What has the
government of the United States done or
proposed to do in that direction? We have
had the Philippine Islands for nearly six
years. The imports of those islands last
wear amounted to more than S35,000,0 600.
The previous year they were more than
81 GOO Coo and yet only s73S,712 of those
imports were carried In American vessels.
There is German line of steamers from
Singapore TO Manila by way of the ports
of north Borneo There are two English
lines from Australia. There are seven or
eight lines from Hongkong and other
Asiatic ports; hence Manila Is well provided
with transportation facilities with every
country except the United States. The
time may come when we will have our
own ships to carry our own products to our
own citizens in this archipelago, and hope
that these few feeble remarks concerning
present conditions will suggest to Congress
the necessity of doing something to hasten
such commercial millennium.
We can cross from Hongkong to Manila
three or four times a week on different
kinds of steamers. but as have told you,
all sail under foreign flags. The fare is
s25 in gold for a forty-eight-hour passage.
The steamers are good bad and Indifferent.
Questions Asked.
Before they win sell ticket the agents
ask you some rather personal questions
which are required by our immigration
laws They give you a blank to be filled
ont stating your age and SEX and whether