PRESENTING A FLAG. Then Dr. Santos, as the spokesman of the Filipino. refugees, again addressed the audience with many complimentary remarks on the gallantry of Admiral Dewey and the skill and foresight of United States Consul-General Pratt, and with glowing forecasts of the prosperity that awaited the Philippine Islands under the new regime. He expressed a desire to have an American flag as a reminiscence of the day's proceedings. Mr. Spencer Pratt, again speaking in French, replied, saying: "This flag was borne in battle, and is the emblem of that very liberty that you are seeking to attain. Its red stripes represent the blood that was shed for the cause; the white represents the purity of the motive; the blue field stands for the azure of the sky; the stars are the free and independent States of the Union. Take the flag and keep it as a souvenir of this occasion." At the conclusion. of Mr. Pratt's speech, he handed an American flag to Dr. Santos, who received it reverently, and waved it exultantly amidst the cheers of the assembled Filipinos. The flag would, said Dr. Santos, be preserved so that future generations might look at it with pride. MR. DAY TO MR. PRATT. (Telegram.) Department of State, June 16, 1898. Two hundred twelve received and answered. Avoid unauthorized negotiations with Philippine insurgents. No. 78. MR. DAY TO MR. PRATT. DAY. Department of State, Washington, June 16, 1898. Sir: I have to acknowledge receipt of your confidential dispatch No. 212, of the 28th of April last, in which you report your proceedings in bringing together the insurgent general, Emilio Aguinaldo, and Admiral Dewey, before the latter's departure for Manila. It appears that your meeting with General Aguinaldo was brought about through the good offices of Mr. H. W. Bray, a British subject, who has been compelled by the disturbed condition of things in the Philippines to abandon his property and business there, and that, after an interview with General Aguinaldo, you telegraphed to Admiral Dewey that the insurgent leader would come to Hongkong to arrange for a general co-operation of the insurgents, if this should be desired. The admiral telegraphed in reply: "Tell Aguinaldo come as soon as possible." As a consequence General Aguinaldo, with his aidde-camp and private secretary, left Singapore for Hongkong on the 26th of April for the purpose of joining Admiral Dewey. You promise the department a fuller account of your interview with General Aguinaldo by the next mail, and say that in arranging for his "direct co-operation" with the commander of the United States forces you have prevented a possible conflict of action and facilitated the work of occupying and administering the Philippines. ents. The department observes that you informed General Aguinaldo that you had no authority to speak for the United States; and, in the absence of the fuller report which you promise, it is assumed that you did not attempt to commit this Government to any alliance with the Philippine insurgTo obtain the unconditional personal assistance of General Aguinaldo in the expedition to Manila was proper, if in so doing he was not induced to form hopes which it might not be practical to gratify. The Government has known the Philippine insurgents only as discontented and rebellious subjects of Spain, and is not acquainted with their purposes. While their contest with that power has been a matter of public notoriety, they have neither asked nor received from this Government any recognition. The United States, in entering upon the occupation of the islands, as the result of its military operations in that quarter, will do so in the exercise of the rights which the state of war confers, and will expect from the inhabitants, without regard to their former attitude toward the Spanish Government, that obedience which will be lawfully due from them. If, in the course of your conferences with General Aguin 16 June aldo, you acted upon the assumption that this Government would co-operate with him for the furtherance of any plan [ not WILLIAM R. DAY. No. 87. MR. DAY TO MR. PRATT. Department of State, Washington, July 20, 1898. Sir: Your No. 229 of the 9th ultimo, inclosing printed copies of a report from the Straits Times of the same day, entitled "Mr. Spencer Pratt's Serenade," with a view to its communication to the press, has been received and considered. By department's telegram of the 17th of June you were instructed to avoid unauthorized negotiations with the Philippine insurgents. The reasons for this instruction were conveyed to you in my No. 78 of the 16th of June, by which the President's views on the subject of your relations with General Aguinaldo were fully expressed. The extract now communicated by you from the Straits Times of the 9th of June has occasioned a feeling of disquietude and a doubt as to whether some of your acts may not have borne a significance and produced an impression which this Government would be compelled to regret. The address presented to you by the twenty-five or thirty Filipinos who gathered about the consulate discloses an understanding on their part that the object of Admiral Dewey was to support the cause of General Aguinaldo, and that the ultimate object of our action is to secure the independence of the Philippines "under the protection of the United States." Your address does not repel this implication, and it moreover represents that General Aguinaldo was "sought out by you," whereas it had been the understanding of the Department that you received him only upon the request of a British subject named Bray, who formerly lived in the Philippines. Your further reference to General Aguinaldo as "the man for the occasion," and to your "bringing about" the "arrangement" between "General Aguinaldo and Admiral Dewey which has resulted so happily," also represents the matter in a light which causes apprehension lest your action may have laid the ground of future misunderstandings and complications. For these reasons the Department has not caused the article to be given to the press, lest it might seem thereby to lend a sanction to views the expression of which it had not authorized. Respectfully yours, WILLIAM R. DAY. No. 236. MR. PRATT TO MR. MOORE. Consulate-General of the United States, Sir: In continuation of my dispatch No. 235, of the 20th instant, I beg to state that if, in regard to General Aguinaldo, I arranged directly with Commodore Dewey without obtaining the Department's previous authorization it was because of the little time there was in which to act and the practical impossibility of explaining by cable to the Department the value of the general's co-operation, of which I felt the commodore would already be in a position to judge from what he must have learned of the situation while at Hongkong. I beg further to state that it was not only on account of the material aid I was confident he could lend us that I regarded the co-operation of General Aguinaldo as so desirable, but also because, as the recognized leader of the insurgents, he was, I considered, the one best able to direct and influence them, and therefore the one most important for our commander to have under immediate control, both as concerned the present and future policy of our Government in the Philippines, whatever that policy might be. Had it not been arranged for General Aguinaldo thus to co-operate with us it is more than probable that he would have returned to the islands of his own accord and undertaken independent operations, which might, I fear, have caused us serious embarrassment. I am not having, nor do I propose to have, any further dealings here with the Philippine insurgents. I have the honor, etc., E. SPENCER PRATT, United States Consul-General. PRESIDENT. (Translation.) Cavite, June 10, 1898. To the President of the Republic of the Great North American Nation: Dear and Honored Sir: I come to greet you with the most tender effusion of my soul, and to express to you my deep and sincere gratitude, in the name of the unfortunate Philippine people, for the efficient and disinterested protection which you have decided to give it, to shake off the yoke of the cruel and corrupt Spanish domination, as you are doing to the equally unfortunate Cuba, which Spain wishes to see annihilated rather than free and independent, giving her, to quiet her and cicatrize the deep wounds made in her heart by the iniquities committed upon her children, a false autonomy, of which one bold blow of the Governor-General may deprive her immediately, as she has no colonial army to serve as a counterpoise to the almost sovereign powers of that supreme authority. At the same time, as I am always frank and open, I must express to you the great sorrow which all of us Filipinos felt on reading in the Times, a newspaper of the greatest circulation and reputation in the whole world, in its issue of the 5th of last month, the astounding statement that you, sir, will retain these islands until the end of the war, and, if Spain fails to pay the indemnity, will sell them to a European power, preferably Great Britain. But we found a palliative to our sorrow in the improbability and suddenness of that statement, as common sense refuses to believe that so sensible a public man as you would venture to make an assertion so contrary to common sense, before events are entirely consummated, as you well know that if God favors the triumph of your arms to-day, to-morrow He may defeat them and give the victory to Spain, and because such an assertion is not consistent with the protection of which you make a boast toward this unfortunate people, which has been groaning for more than 757 |