Evening star., 1945-07-09
Letters to The Star
Gen. Ansell Recalls Experiences
in Distant Mindanao
To the Editor of The star:

Our forces are cleaning up Davao,
Japanese key position in Southern Min
danao, with the Dutch islands to the
south and the main bulk of the Phil
ippines to the north The recapture
of the Philippines Is far from complete.
1t is big military task Between
Aparri In Northern Luzon and Davao
in Southern Mindanao are thousand
miles, thousand islands, a thousand
100000 people. We took the Philip
pines by conquest, and then we promptly
forgot them until Japan moved in and
took them over. Our eyes are fixed on
the dif1culties OF a postwar policy in
Europe whereas the Philippines pre-
sent to us now, as they have presented
from the beginning, problems which
are vital to our Nation. We know and
care all too little about the Philip
pines. The nation holding the Philip
pines controls the Pacific and holds
the key to the gate separating Europe
and America on the one side from all
Asia on the other. II America is not
the gate-keeper, some strong Asiatic
power will be.
Mindanao, next largest island to
Luzon, is roughly $50 miles long and
broad. 1t has an unusual topography
and great variety of undeveloped nat
ural resources, lofty mountain ranges,
swift rivers, great forests of finest
woods, vast uplandS of rolling plain and
grassland, and, particularly around Da-
vac, boundless stretches Of the finest
hemp lands.
Tells Of Old Days in Philippines.
1t has been A years since first had
occasion to stop briefly on the north
coast of Mindanao. / next saw Min
danao 36 years ago, and came to know
1t well in my capacity as prosecuting
attorney, under Gen. Pershing, Gov
ernor of the Moro Province, which in
cluded most of Mindanao and all of
the Sulu group. The Sulus were in
habited entirely by Moros, a sect of
fanatical Mohammedans who practiced
the determination of nonbelievers as
part OF their perverted faith. Many
Moros also inhabited Mindanao and
in some sections Gas in the Lake Lanao
region) they were blood thirsty crew.
But, differing therein from the Sulu
Islands, Mindanao was also inhabited
by many pagan tribes more primitive
than the Moros and more difficult to
know and understand. They were only
little in advance of the earliest of
men.
We were initiating these people into
the ways Of our civilization. II we COM
mitted any fault, 1t was in the precipi-
tateneSS OF our policy. But we had to
begin sometime and temporization and
delay do not always prove to be the
better course with such people and occa-
sionally have disastrous consequences.
So the Moro Province had its depart
ments OF government, somewhat as here
at home. with officials appointed by and
responsible to Manila and Washington.
The government was civil in form but
military in essence. 1t was largely con-
trolled by officers of the Army, except
judges, court attaches and government
counsel, who commonly were civilians.
Our court was itinerant My regular
station, of course, was at Zamboanga,
provincial capital. I felt then, and I
feel now, that an officer Of rank in our
Army must be much more than a mill
tary technician. %
Zamboanga was superior to other pro-
vincial towns, which is saying little. It's
population, aside from native Filipino
and Moro, was a conglomerate OF many
Oriental kinds. My duties as prosecut-
ing attorney took me from Zamboanga
to the principal places in the Sulu group
and around the west and south coasts
of Mindanao, where terms were held at
Malabang, Parang, Cotabato and Davao.
Each of these was the seat of a district
government with a governor, his assist
ants. some military and some court ma
chinery. The district governors were
Army men functioning under Gen.
Pershing and the laws enacted by the
provincial council.
Davao as 1t Was Then.
remember Davao well. 1t is at the
head of the beautiful gulf of the same
name, 30 miles long and 40 wide, with
lofty mountains on either side Davao
was the center of vast pagan terri
tory. Bloody conflicts, individual and
organized, were frequent. Davao, what
ever it is now. was in those days primi-
tive settlement but something of a point
for trade
1t rests in the shadow of two lofty
mountains which seem to rise from the
plains-Mount Apo, an active volcano.
about 10000 feet, beautifully symmet-
rical; and, farther west, Mount Matu-
tum, 5000 feet. reared its majestic head.
A wisp of smoke usually issued lazily
from Apo's peak and f1oated high above
IN the air. The ages-old accumulation
OF sulphur gave to the peak the ap-
pearance OF being clad in snow. But
Apo's activities were not always so
gentle. At times the wisp of sriUke
broke into violence to the accompani-
ment of disturbing earth tremors and
undulations. The next to the last night
ever spent in Davao. Apo broke loose,
the earth billowed and fissure ap-
peared at the south end of the plaza.
The Japanese even then were infil-
tratlng into the Davao district. One
OF them, an intelligent cabinetmaker,
thought to be an Army officer, made
for me and another officer a wonder
fully handsome settee of beautiful pa-
tive wood, which I still have. The last
night I was in Davao I attended a
supper given by some American hemp