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.

DEFENSE AND COMMUNICATIONS

247

big casting houses, arsenals, dockyards, machine workshops,
etc.; to create chemical industries related to the manufacture
of explosives and many other things which the military art
requires now that war is done scientifically.
Let us suppose for a moment that by exerting superhuman
efforts we can construct and maintain a powerful warship and
fortify our shores; I still cannot fully believe that we can be
sure of our independence.
Our defensive means, though they be powerful, have to be
relative and in proportion to our population and to our economic resources, and if we be attacked by any of the imperialistic nations, we shall have to succumb though we fight
heroically, after a certain period.of time.
Besides, our islands being situated in the Pacific which,
according to predictions, is destined to be the theatre of the
future world war, we may, even without wanting it, be involved in the conflict, and at the end, during readjustment, the
group of victorious nations decide our death as an independent
nation to form part of the new grouping or be a dependent
of another nation. This is the case with the small country
of Montenegro which had been independent since time immemorial. In the last war it sacrificed numerous lives and drained
off its treasures in favor of the allies, but when the hour of
victory sounded, these same allies decreed that it be wiped off
the map in order to form part of the nation Jugo Slavia under
the dominion of Servia.
The adverse circumstances that, in the actual state of international politics, surrounds the formation of a small nation
whose inhabitants belong to a race considered inferior, and inclines to backwardness, as claimed by a certain well-known
person, far from discouraging us, should on the contrary serve
as a powerful stimulus so that we may make all the sacrifices
that are necessary to assure the existence of our nation and
demonstrate the falsity of the theory about the supposed incapacity of our race to establish and maintain a stable government. There are many countries, as Abyssinia and Liberia
in Africa; Afghanistan and Siam in Asia; Panama, Cuba, Nicaragua, Honduras, Costa Rica, and others in America; Portugal,