Evening star., 1939-10-08

| ~
With the arrival Of High Commissioner
Sayre at his new post in Manila, he is
likely to encounter other questions than
those of the tariff, in which he has here
tofore been chiefly interested, and other
difficulties confronting that great archi-
pelago, which, for over Al years. has been
American territory. Foremost among
them is that which is now generally rec
ognized as 'the Japanese menace
Under the terms of the existing Tyd-
ings-McDufle law, passed in 1898, polit-
ical independence of the Philippines is to
commence on July 4, 1916. less than
seven years from now. Maj. Anderson,
an Army officer and businessman resid-
ing in the islands from the beginning of
the American occupation, states in his
recent book, THE Philippine Problem"
that, whileA the present commonwealth
(native) government has spent about
one-third of its revenues on the mainte-
nance of standing army, mot single
| step has been taken = = toward a real
istic adjustment Of the islands economic
structure" Perhaps the preference given
the military may be partly due to the
menace above mentioned For, little
more than one year and half after
| the Philippine Commonwealth was
launched, Japan invaded China for the
second time in this decade and began
an unprovoked, undeclared war of ruth
less and destructive conquest, with the
avowed purpose of establishing, in the
euphemistic language of its leaders, "a
new order in Asia," with Japan in full
control.
japanese Objectives Feared.
OF course. this new order" must in
clude the Philippines, If and when Amer
lea withdraws. 1t has long been sus-
pected that among Japan's objectives in
her great design" are the oil fields of
Netherlands India; for oil is one Of the
factors which Japan sorely needs in her
ambitious and audacious undertakings,
and neither in her own islands nor in
the nearby mainland Of Asia has oil yet
been found in any considerable guam
tity
Now the Philippines are in the direct
path of japanese expansion southwark
to the East Indies Indeed, the first step
In that expansion was taken as long ago
as 1894, when Japan, in her first aggres-
sive war on China, seized, and has ever
since held, the great island of Taiwan,
uh3oh tho pnrf,,n,,ocn 1oric
mosa ("the beautiful"), and which, to-
gether with the Batanes, brought Japa-
nese territory almost within sight of
North Luzon. Since then Japan's de-
signs upon the Philippines have been
manifested in various ways There have
been frequent clashes in the north be-
tween Filipinos and Japanese fishermen,
poaching on the formers preserves.
There is large and growing Japanese
colony, of long standing, in the Davao
district of the large island of Mindanao
and it was long since reported that the
native pearl fishers of that region had
been driven out and that valuable in
dustry taken over by Japanese.
"Good- WHIP Missions Suspicious.
An old friend from Manila, also of the
Philippine judiciary, whom I met re-
Gently in San Francisco, told of increas-
ing visits to the islands by japanese
delegations" ostensibly on missions of
good will" or in promotion Of trade, but
really, it was believed, to get first-hand
information for the great design" Flat
tered by these marks of attention from
their powerful northern neighbors, many
Filipinos entertain these visitors with
that lavish hospitality in which Fill
pinos excel, and make return visits.
Even President Quezon spent a recent
vacation in Japan and was entertained
by the leaders there. But it Is signifi-
cant that the "Sakdal' rebel leader
made his headquarters in Japan and is
sued orders to his Filipino followers.
The far-sighted Filipinos, especially
those with property interests at stake,
see in these episodes another case of
the spider and the fly. OF course, the
Japanese assure them Japan has no de-
signs upon the Philippines; but so they
likewise assured the Koreans and the
Chinese, to both of whom, and especially
to the latter, Japan owes her first ad-
vances in civilization. It is hardly to
be expected that hef word would mean
more to stranger people, such as the
Filipinos.
Yes, the Philippines are in the path Of
Japan's expansion southwark, but that
is not their sole attraction. Byron ex.
planned the frequent invasions Of italy