Our Philippines and China

...So long as world affairs are to be settled by balanced power and competition of armaments, our continued presence in the far Pacific is undoubtedly a stabilizing factor of vast importance...

...In the hands of the United States they are a shield defending the Indies and Australasia against Asiatic aggression...

...When we first talked of Philippine independence "the British navy was supreme in the Pacific, and there was every *The Philippines: A Treasure and a Problem, by Nicholas Roosevelt...

...Perhaps Mr...

...There is, for example, no thorough discussion of the possibility of increasing poli tical independence of the Philippines, with corresponding international agreements as to foreign loans...

...Our neighbors will be as much affected by our action as ourselves...

...Yet a closer study reveals a firmer substance...

...The Philippines, he reminds us, guard the southern approaches to the coast of China, and also unite Asia with the islands that lead to Australasia...

...Today, however, "that assurance of peace and security which existed prior to 1914 has disappeared...

...But with the United States removed, and the British sea-power in that region diminished in relation to the growing strength of Japan, this balance would no longer exist, and a new order would establish itself, possibly through serious conflict...

...For it must be admitted that Mr...

...At the present moment, a balance of power exists in the Pacific sufficient to guarantee peace and prevent unfair exploitation...

...Read in conjunction with the news despatches from China, it may result in bringing us at least to the brink of our own Chinese wall, where we can peer out upon the complexities of a world challenging our most constructive thinking and our most generous determination to act wisely and with courage...

...We are not living in an international vacuum...

...Certainly they have attained premier importance in the short space of time since the book was written, due to the uprising in a new form of the ancient problem of the white man and his position in China...

...Roosevelt is reinventing the "Yellow Peril...

...These are probably the most important sentences in the refreshingly sane discussion of the Philippines* undertaken by Nicholas Roosevelt after an extensive trip in the Far East...

...4.00...

...In the meantime, this book will go far to unsettle our complacency about the Philippine question...

...Which, then, is our greatest responsibility—to the Filipinos or to world peace...

...Australia has less than two inhabitants to the square mile...

...Our ability to keep the door open . . . rests on our prestige, which in the final analysis rests on force...

...It states the terms of the problem with disconcerting frankness and even brutality...

...Roosevelt leads us gently but none the less firmly to the conclusion that another generation, at least, will be required to bring the internal conditions of the islands to a point where independence might promise some stability...

...The Open Door has been one of the few foreign policies to which we have clung regardless of domestic partisanship...

...The Philippines have, in fact, become the base on which American policy in eastern Asia rests today...

...Roosevelt's book is what it omits...

...It is an excellent summary of things as they are...

...There are moments, in reading this book, when every argument seems headed toward the absurdity that "we are there because we are, and must remain because we must"—that age-old justification of the imperialist...

...Which is the lesser of two evils...

...And from this conclusion springs his most important chapter on international relations...

...Roosevelt's analysis of the importance of America in the Philippines to the stability of international relations in the Pacific rings with uncommon timeliness...

...The news events of recent days supply an obvious confirmation of this "realistic" interpretation of American power in the East...

...If it attempts no answer, it may provoke one, and that in itself will be a sturdy service...

...The question is somewhat larger than the ability of the Filipinos, independently, to maintain an armed force sufficient for the defense of the islands...

...The difficulty of the decision is only enhanced by conditions in the Philippines themselves, where, if Mr...

...Just as we recognize the distinction between individuals "of age" and minors, placing the latter either with their families or under state guardianship, we can admit degrees of sovereignty in states, and provide for guardianships, either national or international...

...To those who think that it would be a simple matter to establish an enlightened democracy in the Philippines and then let the Filipinos shift for themselves, Mr...

...Roosevelt's intention was too modest to permit a discussion of such possibilities, but surely the horns of the dilemma he has raised would be far less disheartening if he even hinted that there might be other ways out...

...This force is dependent on our naval base in the Philippines, and the effectiveness and mobility of our fleet in the Pacific...

...If we grant them freedom, we may precipitate a new conflict of world powers for control of the Far East...

...In days when every newspaper thunders from its front pages the complexities of Chinese revolt and the determination of Great Britain to maintain her prestige in the East intact, Mr...

...We entered under one set of world conditions...

...Roosevelt, "makes certain that America's influence will be felt in determining the affairs of China...

...Nor, from this statement, must we jump to the conclusion that Mr...

...Japan has nearly four hundred people per square mile, China some two hundred and fifty, whereas the Philippines have less than a hundred...

...His thesis, to which all other consderations now seem to bow through the stern sweep of events, is this: Political conditions in the Pacific have radically changed since we first occupied the Philippines...

...With this possibility is tied up the British empire in India, and the repercussion there of any blow at British prestige in the Pacific or in China...

...But it neglects utterly, and perhaps intentionally, to suggest any program or even a hope of settlement along newer lines of international control...

...The development of this thesis is as interesting in practical diplomacy as it is disheartening to the international idealist...

...There are other, and far easier, ways of subjugating a people than through armed conquest...

...In another sense, however, the most interesting aspect of Mr...

...Peaceful penetration has become a high art these days, and unless a country has internal stability, a sound fiscal system and a fair degree of economic independence, it may soon find itself so completely mortgaged to another nation as to be forced to do the bidding of that nation...

...Roosevelt is an accurate reporter, the prerequisites of successful independence have not yet been developed...

...Those conditions have changed...

...New York: J. H. Sears and Company, Inc...

...Roosevelt has put up to the United States a conflict of obligations not unlike the core of many Greek tragedies...

...In the hands of Japan or China they would constitute a formidable threat for the Dutch East Indies, Australia, and New Zealand...

...Roosevelt's careful analysis of the elements of discord, of the economic handicaps and weakness of the islands, of the difficulties of education, and of the religious as well as racial antagonisms among the Filipinos themselves, will offer many hours of profitable reflection...

...The presence of the United States in the Philippines," says Mr...

...likelihood that the security of the independent Filipino republic would not be threatened...

...If we do nothing, we are guilty of at least the appearance of poor faith toward the Filipinos...

...As the Dutch and British see it, if the Philippines were left defenseless, the Asiatic powers would seek the exploitation of the Philippines first, then the Dutch East Indies, and lastly the inviting expanse of Australia...

...He merely takes the position of a realist, facing facts of population and economics...

...To grant the Filipinos independence today not only would expose them to absorption by other countries less friendly to them than America, but might well unleash the dogs of war...

...The fiction that a territory must be either a dependent part of some larger country or else wholly independent and irresponsible ought to have no place in a world that prides itself on being practical...

...Surely in this realistic age, we ought to see the glimmerings of an appreciation that sovereignty may be internationally recognized as a progressive attribute— that full sovereignty in a country may be recognized only as that country demonstrates its ability to fulfill the duties of sovereignty...