Proceedings of the first Independence congress : held in the city of Manila, Philippine islands, February 22-26, 1930 / Published under the direction of Dean maximo M. Kalaw, executive secretary, University of the Philippines.

INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS SECTION 233

As the representative of the Philippine government, I hesitate
to give adhesion to this idea for I cannot believe that there is any
present or threatened future difficulty between the American and
Philippine governments, justifying warlike activities, and as a
believer in the humanity of the American people, refused to acquiesce
in the idea that America designs war upon the Philippine Islands.
But lately the United States and the government I have the
honor to represent have been associated in a conflict against a
common enemy. The purpose for which the United States entered
upon such a struggle has been accomplished by the expulsion of
Spain from her West Indian possessions. The desire of the Philippine Republic has been practically attained by the almost complete
expulsion of the Spanish government from the Philippine Islands,
the Philippine government now holding as prisoners of war between
nine thousand and ten thousand soldiers lately in arms under the
Spanish flag and Spain possessing only a few small garrisons in
isolated points of minor importance and not worth enumerating.
In view of the foregoing, I cannot as I have said, conceive any
reason why the armies and navies of the United States lately employed against her common enemy should now be turned against
America's recent associate.
The United States has no active enemy in the Orient, having
proclaimed an armistice with its late antagonist. It is true that
such antagonist has undertaken to convey to the United States its
alleged claim against the Philippine Islands, a claim which Spain
was not capable of enforcing and which never found its origin in
the consent of the people of these islands. Are my government
and people to be left to suppose that it is because of some desire
on the part of the American government to enforce against its late
associate this exploded claim that the United States is massing its
forces at the late capital of the Philippine Islands?
The Philippine Islands are in a state of public order. They
possess a government satisfactory to their inhabitants and are withcut an enemy within their borders offering any resistance to its
just operations, and they find themselves to be at peace with all
the world.
I am sure you will appreciate, in view of the circumstances I
have detailed, the quieting and reassuring effect upon the minds of
my countrymen to result from a disclaim upon the part of the
American government of any intention to attack their liberties and
independence.
Notwithstanding the serious difficulty under which I labor in
not having been formally received by the American government
as representative of the Filipino nation, I feel it my imperative