Norwich bulletin., 1913-02-28
HOME FROM MANILA.
Lieut.. Charles H. Allen Thinks Philip pines Not Yet Fitted for Complete IndePendence-The Convict System

Lieut. Charles H. Allen, U. s. A., was the guest Thursday of MT. and street. Lieutenant Allen is in the states on frirlough from his post al Manila, F. l.. where he is an officer of the United States consta bulary troops He has been ten years in the Philip pines, all of the time on the Island of Luzon. His home is in Rockville where MT. and Mrs. Barnett formerly lived.
 Lieutenant Allen. who will give a lecture on the Philippines at Ellington tonight, Is pronounced in his expres- sion of opinion that the time has not yet arrived when 1t would be wise for the United States to grant irdepen- dence to the islanders, but he Is Just as positive that that time will be reached in a few years.
 The lieutenant Is an especially en- tertaining and interesting talker about Uncle Sam's far eastern possessions of their ways and methods and ts in timately acquainted with all that Is being done for their advancement. In an interview Thursday he laid partic- uIar stress the topic of education in the islands. enumerating various phases of the achievements made by the natives during the past ten years. The school system is now finely de- veloped In connection with routine educational work the growing genera tion of Filipinosi are being trained in domestic sciencs, trade and normal schools and are making the most of their new found opportunities. They are a people very quick to learn Lieu tenant Allen says, and extremely eff cient in many lines of endeavor. American teachers are chiefly in charge of the schools, but native teachers are being given employment as rapidly as they are prepared to receive IL.
 Many of the features of the law and order code in the islands are so ad vanced as to warrant adoption in the states. This fact was particularly H. discussion of the penal and parole system The model government prison In Manila houses about $500 prison CTS. When the conduct of the latter warrant 1t, this applying to what Is known as long term men-t6 years te 1ife-they are transferred to a penal colony on what was an uninhabited island in the great group that makes up the archipelago and given what Is in most cases better opportunity substantial and valuable citizens.
 This island is approximately 300 miles from Manila. At the present time about 1000 prisoners are located upon it. Except from the parental su- pervision of a superintendent and his assistants they are to all fntents and purposes. free and untrammeled, all though without means of leaving the isolated 1EianQ. WI QSn S6AI Cn0T6 they are given a. tract of land. aid and as sistance in buildin ga home, and tools and animals with which to till the land and make themselves self sup porting, which they almost invariably do Tn time, if their record warrants, they are allowed to have their families with them.
 On this island. now intersected with finely built roads and in the woods of which magnificent orchids that cost a dollar a smell in the states grow un- cultivated and in riotous profusion, S the lieutenant says, the convicts have their own government, their own dred other organizations, all made up of convicts.
 A convict n1alefactor, of which there are few, paradoxical as it may seem will be arrested by a convict police man, tried before a convict judge and held in custody by a convict jailer. If his case is sufficiently grievous he is busted from the colony-sent back to the government prison at the first op- portunity. And while he is in cus- tody on the island he is summed like a pest.
 Lieutenant Allen enthu usiastically de- scribed various other surprising fea- lures of this model and self support ing penal colony. When once settled there few of the convicts will accept an opportunity to leave. he says They have their homes, their families and more of the goods of the world than they could possibly have elsewhere and are content to remain and lead model lives