The Problem of the Philippines

Report Outline
Natural Resources of the Philippines
American Policy in the Philippines
Present Status of the Philippines
Future Status of the Philippines

Recent developments in the Philippines, in combination with other circumstances, make it certain that Philippine issues will occupy an important place among the subjects of debate at the forthcoming session of Congress.

The return of the President's special envoy, Carmi A, Thompson, from his mission of inquiry; the presidential sanction given to the Kiess bill which would provide the American Governor-General with special funds outside the control of the native legislature; the accumulation of reports that uncertain health and advancing years have increased the desire of Governor-General Wood for an early return to the United States; the crystallization of Filipino sentiment indicated by the fusion of the two political parties in the Islands to work unitedly for independence, and, above all, the agreement of all shades of opinion that the present anomalous constitutional status of the Islands must be modified, are among the factors which make important decisions upon the future of this restless American dependency imperative for the government at Washington.

Strategic Importance of Philippines

Geographically, the Philippine Archipelago constitutes the southern half of the great chain of islands which parallels the coast of Asia from Siberia to the equator. A radius of 1,700 miles drawn with Manila, as a center includes all of the Chinese coast-line and its thickly populated hinterland; all of the Dutch East Indies, French Indo-China, Siam, Burma, and the Malay Peninsula; takes in most of Korea and the industrialized western half of Japan; touches the coast of Australia to the south and the great Indian port of Calcutta to the west. This key position, athwart all Oriental trade routes, gives to the Philippines a strategic and commercial importance potentially greater than that possessed by Japan, forming the northern half of the island chain.