Evening star., 1946-03-26

OURSELVES II "Weh Wehest.
our British cousins was not put to
the same test as that OF the Rus
signs.
Long. long ago the British took
up tho white mans burden in India
and they seem only now to be
seriously engaged in the difficult
task Of laying that burden down.
Ditto the Dutch in Indonesia. And
ourselves in the Philippines.
Before any reader leaps up to
remind me Of the purity of our
motives in the Philippines let me
recall the bitter debate we had
with ourselves before we settled on
the course we have followed. There
was sizable school of American
patriots who believed we had a
permanent rendezvous with destiny
IN that far Pacific outpost. Albert
j. Beveridge held national attention
with his glowing pictures of the
empire the United States could and
should become. Theodore Roosevelt
appeared at times to f1irt with the
same set of ideas.
Guided by Mixed Motives.
But we are getting out Of the
Phllippines-after nearly half GEN.
tury-and we've fought bloody war
partly for the purpose of preventing
anybody else, specifically the Japa-
nese, from taking them over. To be
completely honest, we've moved as
rapidly as we have only because our
agricultural interests wish to put an
end to the free entry into this coun-
try Of Philippine products. Even
so. the desire to do the decent thing
by the Philippines is a real and
true expression of our attitude to-
ward the rest of the world.
Then there was Cuba from which
We departed with reasonably good
speed, although there were plenty
OF practical" persons who could
see no reason for our giving up what
we had rescued from Spain. We
only remained a few years longer
than we said we would. Puerto
Rico? Well, we're still there,
But, we tell ourselves, we've re-
malned in these places for their own
good. What, we ask, would have
happened to the Philippines If we
mad left them to themselves? Sure,
the Japs would have gobbled them
up. The Japs would have done lust
that, unless
Unless we had, as a Nation, taken
the same line toward the Japanese
IN Manchuria back in 1881 that we
are taking toward the Russians now,
Henry L. Stimson, as Secretary of
state, sought to take that line then.
believing the time to stop Japan's
program of imperial aggression was
IN It's beginning. He failed to OBJ
tain any firm backing by President
Hoover and, more important, he
failed to obtain the cooperation of
Great Britain. Maybe it's true-a
lot OF people think so-that the
western powers could have stopped
Japan then and, in that case. we
wouldn't have had to worry about
the Philippines being seized.
How Russians View 1t.
Returning to the matter of mo-
tive, it is possible the Russian peo-
pie Gf they have the slightest idea
OF what is going on in Iran) see the
presence of their troops in that
benighted country as merely an evi-I
dence of their desire to be helpful
They doubtless think the Persians
should be purring like kittens under
the sunshine of Stalin's smile.
We don't know about that. In
fact, we don't know very much
about what is happening in the
worlds hottest trouble spot. So con-
fusing and contradictory have the
stories from around the edges been
that it Is real relief to read a dis
patch from U. P. correspondent in
Bagdad that begins with these frank
words: Reports Of uncertain origin
reached Bagdad today that Kurdish
rebels" etc.
Be all these things as they may,