The Times published on Thursday an appeal by Filipinos to
America which might almost have been penned by Boers. The writers declare that their people have always sought independence; and admit that the treaty of submission to the Spanish Government which they signed in 1896 was only " a stepping stone to independence," as their partial autonomy and control of funds would have given them fresh means of resistance. They point to the long continuance and constant revival of the contest as evidence that the Americans can never win it, and they reject all promises because they are accompanied by a demand for unconditional surrender "without any assurance that the one thing we value "—viz., independence—" will ever be granted to us." "When the bread of national life is asked for it is of no use to offer a stone, even though the stone be a diamond." The "American armies can defeat our troops, but they cannot defeat or destroy this desire,"—which was nevertheless con- sistent with centuries of submission to Spanish authority. The document represents, we imagine, the feeling of a small body of able men who have succeeded in influencing native opinion, rather than that of the great body of the people, who in several of the islands have accepted American authority with a certain cheerfulness. One wonders what those who sign it think would become of them if the Americans with- drew. Would they like the Germans, or the Japanese?
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