America's forfeiture of Far Eastern lands

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Part of The American Chamber of Commerce Journal

Title: America's forfeiture of Far Eastern lands
Language: English
Source: The American Chamber of Commerce Journal Volume 6 (No. 7) July 1926
Year: 1926
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Fulltext: 10 THE AMERICAN CHAMBER OF COMMERCE JOURNAL July, 1926 Life Insurance Company and spent three years as resident secretary for the com pany in Siam and Burma, having charge of payment of claims, the making of loans, handling of litigation—the usual and im portant executive duties of the resident secretaries. The European War was on. When America got into it, Headington naturally tried to go. He wasn’t successful in this, his youth was a good way behind him, but he gained connection with the defense forces of the nation, for he was given the rank of captain in the quartermaster re serve corps. Headington is a Past Com mander, Veterans of Foreign Wars, and Commander of Stotsenberg Post No. 2, Uni ted States War Veterans, of which Carmi Aiderman Thompson, sent to the Philip pines to make an intensive survey in be half of President Coolidge, is the national head. America’s Forfeiture of Far Eastern Lands **** ' It*** Might Have Territory From Formosa to Fiji If, seeking the grotesque in statecraft, one sits down to thumbing the old records of America in eastern Asia—and what remark able records they are!—one finds that im perialism and altruism, as the terms are nowadays applied to the Philippines ques tion, are of no recent birth: they are old, they antedate steam upon the Pacific by more than a decade. Avowing altruism, imperialism has in general been practiced; that is to say, altruism, however sternly espoused, has not been altogether capable of arresting the natural and necessary ex pansion of the United States in the far east. It has, however, succeeded in bringing about national sacrifices in the far east of colossal magnitudeIt is hardly arresting to the attention to recall that in 1898 Commodore George De wey left Hongkong before 4 p. m. April 25, as the British government, having determin ed upon neutrality in the struggle between Spain and America, requested he should. Everybody knows this. Dressed Up But it is arresting to the But Nowhere attention to recall that To Go! when he left Hongkong he had absolutely no place to go but to Manila; and there, to make a place for his fleet, it would be neces sary first to destroy the Spanish fleet, for we had not a naval rendezvous in the whole far east! Our far eastern fleet measured 18,000 tons; England’s, Germany’s and Japan’s each three times that. We had commercial interests in Manila; our with drawal from far eastern waters, in time of war, would have been the signal for these interests to be attacked and annihilated. The providence, so-called, of the situation lias been romanticised upon and still finds bombastic utterance upon formal and in formal occasions. Yet the hand of provid ence was not at the helm. Compulsion drove Dewey to Manila. It was either that or show the white feather on the high seas. This was due to the fact that for fifty years we had been forfeiting territory in the far east, until we had none: Honolulu would have been Dewey’s first available ren dezvous, the first station at which he might legally bunker his ships. The explanation is that our state depart ment had, as it still does, consistently re fused to view political policy and commer cial policy in the far east as a single unit. It therefore falls out that America owes far more to the vision and enterprise of half a dozen distinguished naval officers When Headington returned to Manila from India and Siam he became treasurer of the Manila Trading and Supply Com pany, one of the wealthier American cor porations of the islands, and when the San Juan Heights Company organized to pioneer in selling suburban homes to Manila’s mid dle class, Headington was chosen treasurer of that company and retired from the Ma nila Trading and Supply Company. He is a certified public accountant. Baseball and boxing benefit from his patronage as a fan. He is an Elk, a Shriner, member of the University Club and the Golf Club, and of the Chamber of Commerce, where he represents the active membership of the Philippine Button Corporation and is an Alternate Director. He enjoys a wide and influential acquaintance in the islands and has always received the cooperation of bus iness people and government officials, who appreciate his character and frank methods of business. than to forty congresses and sixteen pres idents. We reproduce with this comment a copy of the first treaty America ever made in the fair east. It was with the sultan of Sulu and was effected by Commodore Charles Wilkes, commanding the first United . States naval exploring expeAn Early . dition, sent out during the Demacratic administration of President Move Van Buren. It will be seen that this treaty was for the purpose of fostering commerce. It was agreed, too, that at least three ships of ours would call yearly in Sulu; there were well defined obligations upon our part as we'l as upon the sultan’s. This was in 1842. In 1840, Wilkes had effected a survey of the Fiji islands, which became a British colony in 1874. They are on the route be tween Australia and Panama. They ex tend from 15 degrees to 20 degrees south latitude, lie along the 180 meridian, the international date line, comprise 250 islands, 80 of which are inhabited, have an area of 7,435 square miles and are "the most im portant archipelago in Polynesia—” that is, in the Pacific islands from the American coast north and south of the equator as far as the 180 meridian. Wilkes reported faith fully upon the advisability of securing them; they were thrown at our head in the middle fifties of the last century, and at England’s as well. We dodged, England didn’t. Kipling reminds us that— "Never was isle so little, never was sea so lone, But over the scud and the palm trees an English flag was flown.” It is not a little surprising to learn how like the English the American flag has been in this respect, but the enterprise of our sailors has been less appreciated in Wash ington than the enterprise of British sailors has always been appreciated in Downing St reet... It is so much better, of course, for our parlor societies to believe that the Fiiians, swept into the stream of modern events whether they would or no, are better off under another nation than under ours. It only happens that it isn’t, true: altruism is a notorious misnomer. Fiji might have been our southern outpost in the Asiatic Pa cific. It isn’t. Move forward twelve years. Perry goes to Japan, he effects a treaty with her. Ap parently it is not so advantageous as the one Caleb Cushing and Dr. Peter Parker have effected with China in 1844, but it is based upon the fundamental truth that our commercial and political interests are one; and so it gets, in time, much farther . than the Cushing Unity of Political treaty. Visiting And Commercial Yedo, Perry makes Interests rendezvous in a har bor of the largest of the Lew Chew islands, which he proposes to hold for the United States—by force if need be. He finds himself so well received in Japan that belligerency is not required; the Lew Chew harbor could be held. It isn’t. Washington declines the responsibi lity. Perry chafes, but is impotent. Move forward 17 years. Events have progressed in China as well as Japan. China has never conformed to her treaty agreements, made one after another; our navy has been at various times employed; Taiwan, Formosa, is the wild habitat ot' savages and renegade Chinese, warring upon one another and upon all who touch the miserable coasts—often driven there by storms; so that every man of one of our ships has been wantonly and brutally murderec-. Our flag goes up at Takau, stays there for one year. Commodore Armstrong is on the job. Coal is required for the new steamship line across the Pacific, and For mosa has coal superior to that brought out in the clippers. Six thousand tons a year are contracted for, at $7 a ton, and only 300 tons secured, ere China, by a gesture curious enough in a friendly nation, stops delivery. China has committed excesses enough, and Formosa is naught but a no-man’s land in the midst of treacherous seas and pillaged by treacherous men. Portugal has had it, Spain has had it, Holland has had it, and since 1682, it has been nominally under China, which gives it no attention and will not be responsible for repeated violations of international law. Yet we do not hold Formosa, in one year our flag comes down —by order of Washington. When some shipwrecked Japanese are murdered, Japan overruns Formosa in 1874 and keeps the island until China salves the hurt with a half million taels. In 1895 Japan comes again, and her Japanese sovereignty is permanently Procedure established. It is much betDifferent ter’ *s f°r Formosa to be under other rule than ours? "A more debased population could scarcely be conceived. The aborigines, Sheng-fan, or wild savages, deserved the appellation in some respects, for they lived by the chase and had little knowledge even of husbandry; while the Chinese themselves, uneducated laborers, acknowledged no right except that of might.” It is possible, nevertheless, for some per sons’to contend that God gave Formosa to such people. Would it be sacrilegious to remark that if He did, the devil has trium phed, for Japan has certainly taken For mosa away from them; and what part of it they shall finally retain they will retain by changing their ways. The Financial and Economic Annual of Japan, for 1925, lists the following Formo san minerals now yielding millions of wc-alth to the world yearly: gold, silver, coal, copper, petroleum. The Formosan sugar crop in 1924 was 452,210 metric tons, exceeding any sugar crop ever grown in the Philippines. Even the jute crop was nearly 4,000 tons. The revenue from tax ation was Yen 87,008,171. The expenditure for education was Yen 2,818,512. The ex penditure for communications was Yen 13,426,224, only slightly in excess of the value cf the tea crop alone. America was, of course, the chief purchaser of the tea! July, 1926 THE AMERICAN CHAMBER OF COMMERCE JOURNAL 11 632 APPENDIX. XIIL I, Mohamed, Sultan of Sooloo. for the purpose of encouraging trade with the people of the United States of America, do promise hereby and bind myself that I will afford full protection to all vessels of the United States, and their eommanders and crews, visiting any of the islands of my dominions, and they shall be allowed to trade on the terms of the most favoured nation, and receive such provisions* and necessaries as they may be in want of. 2o'v. In case of shipwreck or accident to any vessel. I will afford them all the assistance in my power, and protect the persons and properly of those wrecked, and afford them all the.assistance in my power for its preservation and safe-keeping, and for the return of tho officers and crews of said vessels to the Spanish settlements, or wherever they may w h to proceed. 3dly. That any one of my subjects who shall do any injury or harm to the commanders or crews belonging to Amorican vessels, shall receive such punishment as his crime merits. In witness whereof I have hereunto set my hand and seal, in presence of the datus and chiefs at Suurig. island of Sooloo. • February 5th, 1842. Commanding Exploring Expedition. William L. Hudson, I^te commanding U. S. Ship Peacock. R. R. Waldron, Purser, II, S. Exploring Expedition. Formosa extends from 20-56 to 25-15 north latitude and from 120 to 122 east longitude. It is 225 miles long and from 60 to 80 miles broad, has a coast line of 731 miles and an area of 13.429 square miles —“being thus nearly the same size as Kiusliiu, the mort southern of the four chief islands forming the Japanese empire pro per.” The annual export of Oolong and Pouchong teas exceeds five million kilo grams. The population is about 3,500,000. The value of the overseas trade in 1924 was Yen 384,700,000. As comparisons are odious, they are omitted, but the reader is left to his own intelligent devices. In our eagerness to reach Formosa we overlooked Borneo. We might have estab lished in North Borneo under the Wilkes treaty of 1842. Consul Moses, at Brunei, actually obtained a conMoses Gets cession in 1867, four years North Borneo Prior J® th® British, but he could not secure it be cause he had no support from Washington. It was nothing for America to occupy the lands of civilized Indians, for the very legi timate purpose of making farms out of bunting grounds; but it would, it seemed, be dreadful to make tropical Borneo habit able and productive. The job was left to the British, as usual, and they have at last begun on it in earnest. “In 1872 the Labuan Trading Company was established in Sandakan, the fine har bor on the northern coast which was sub sequently the capital of the North Borneo Company’s territory. In 1878, through the instrumentality of Mr. (afterward Sir) Alfred Dent, the Sultan of Sulu was in duced to transfer to a syndicate, formed by Baron Overbeck and Mr. Dent, his possessions in North Borneo, of which, as has been seen, he had been from time immemorial the overlord. Early in 1881 the, British North Borneo Provisional As sociation, Ltd., was formed to take over the concession which had been obtained from the sultan of Sulu, and in November of that year a petition was addressed to Queen Victoria praying for a royal charter. It was granted, and subsequently, the Bri tish North Borneo Company, which was formed in May 1882, took over, in spite of some diplomatic protests on the part of the Dutch, and Spanish governments.” In the darkest jungle of North Borneo,— which, by the way, is a territory of 31,000 square miles, immensely rich, and within sight of America’s southern Philippine boundary, there are peoples so primitive that they will not ford a stream, even if no more than ankle deep. (The type, too, is not abPhilippines). By some oc' '' reasoning, such The Jungle and Rs Primitives sent from the ___ ...___ cult process of romantic _____ ______ peoples are supposed, in altruism, to have heaven-bestowed inalienable rights to run wild and nude—into the very gates of eter nity, and the jungle is to be preserved for them. Unfortunately for the ideals of picturesque savagery that lurk in the back of all our brains, the British, for example, don’t see things in this light. Without profiting from North Borneo in any way whatsoever, America still has the deil’s own time about the place. For it be longs in fact to the realm of the sultan of Sulu, who is our subject—whether the Con stitution permits it or not. The rest of his territory is United States territory. What of North Borneo? A pretty question is presented, one to drive an altruist quite mad: for there is no altruism about it, and his deeding over lands and people alike was a thoroughly cold-blooded act. “Whereas, wo have seen fit to grant to our trusty and well beloved friends,” Sri Paduka Maulana Al Sultan Mahomet Jamal Al Alam Bin Al Marhon Sri Paduka Al Sul tan Mahomet Pathion Sultan of Sulu and its dependencies informs “all nations of the earth whom these matters may concern, certain portions of the dominions owned by _ us comprising all the The Making of lands on the north and A Rajah east coast of Borneo, etc., etc....we do here by nominate and appoint the said Baron de Overbeck supreme and independent ruler of the above named territories, with the title of Datu Bandahara and Rajah of San dakan.” He goes on to bestow absolute power, more than Rome ever assumed, over subject and soil, and to make his rights inheritable and perpetual (upon the com pany’s agreeing), “this 22nd day of Jan■ uary, A. D., 1878, at the palace of the sul tan, at Lipuk, in the island of Sulu.” The sultan was under duress. The Span ish campaigns for Christendom had despoil ed his realm in the Philippines with steam ships atid heavy cannon. It is recorded that not a house was left whole anywhere on Jolo. As the country had thus been ruined, fields and homes alike, the royal revenues were sorely depleted. To recoup the Islamic bourse, therefore, the sultan made the deal with the British. The price is 85,000 Mex. annually, and the sultan goes each year to Sandakan to collect it. He is royally received, accorded a salute of 21 guns, the sovereign’s salute, and lodged in a palace. He is reported fond of gaming; his subsidy is said always to remain in Sandakan, a forfeit to a royal (Continued on page /.?) July, 1926 THE AMERICAN CHAMBER OF COMMERCE JOURNAL 13 (Continued from paye 11) good time wherein he has received many royal courtesies, but no royal flushes. He, too, would like to remain in Sanda kan, and there’s the rub. He is our sultan, Sandakan’s sovereign. The situation is complicated in extreme. A few years ago he quite overstayed his leave, so to speak, in Sandakan, and it was necessary to send a ship and induce him to return to Jolo. But what has been the actual status of North Borneo since 1922 is the real ques tion. The sultan claims that the original agreement, of which duplicate copies were made in the Sulu language, was dated, and that it was for only fifty years. Hence, being made in 1872, it expired in 1922. Therefore, have we vicariously acquired North Borneo?—though certainly uninten tionally, as we once refused to have it and permitted Moses’ trading company, estab lished at Kimanis, to fall before the bluster of more avid interests. Now the sultan lost his copy of the agreement, the lontar and the tarsila re cords were burned in the war with Spain in the later 70’s. The other copy is locked securely up in the vaults of the company’s * London offices! The sulLondon Vault tan frets, is anxious and Holds Borneo restless: we have the Secret trouble of calming and controlling him, but no thanks for doing it; Space doesn’t admit of going on to any detailed mention of our relinquished con cession in Shanghai, or our possession at various times of various of the Caroline isles in Micronesia. We did, with the Philippines, acquire some potential coaling Acquiring a Larger Chinese Merchant Population &&&&&&&•& Births and Immigration Add Many Celestials When one attempts to look into the Phil ippine immigration question the first thing that confronts him is the anomalous record in the census. The census of 1903 gives the persons of the yellow race in the Phil ippines at that time as 42,097, of which at least 40,000 may be taken to have been Chinese. The Japanese population at that time was insignificant. Persons of the yel low race resident in Manila at that time were reported to be 21,838, of whom 733 were women and girls and 21,105 were boys and men. The census of 1918 gives the Chinese in the Philippines as 43,802, and those resident in Manila as 17,856. But figures of the bureau of health show that by birth alone, leaving immigration aside for the moment, the Chinese population in creases nearly ten per cent in seven years. It would surely increase 20 per cent in fif teen years, the interim from 1903 to 1918, and the latter census would perhaps be more accurate if it showed the Chinese in the Philippines at that time to have been 50,000. Probably, too, there was no decrease in the number of Chinese resident in Manila between 1903 and 1918, although, according to the census, there was an apparent de crease of about 2,000. Another thing a study of immigration into the Philippines readily reveals, is that the gentlemen’s agreement by which the Japanese are governed works out more ad Year Arrived Debarred Departed. Deported Net Increase 1919................... 12,936 241 8.620 125 3,950 1920 ................... 14,875 562 10,536 335 3,442 1921................... 13,989 849 15,954 164 (3,560) 1922 ................... 13,954 776 13,598 162 ( 582) 1923................... 15,307 677 11,882 153 2,595 1924 ................... 13,376 580 12,497 97 202 1925 ................... 14,467 212 12,207 39 2,189 Totals................ 99,084 3,897 85,294 1,075 8,818 stations and naval bases, but we constantly romanticise and speak of giving them up. Our real troubles, real difficulties, real ad verse trade balances, arise, of course, from not holding on; but the people, at election time, respond to poetic ideals more quickly than to prosaic facts—it is always easier to be bombastic than to be downright hon est—and so we go on talking of withdrawal from the Philippines. Meanwhile we are quite indifferent to ward our recognized treaty boundaries. Two foreign flags fly within the Philip pines, both at eminently strategical points. The Dutch flag is over Las Palmas island, where, for a nation that might become un friendly, to establish a base would be all but fatal to the defense of Davao gulf, where we obtain our best Manila hemp and a goodly portion of our copra. The Dutch flag is a friendly flag, yet it has no place over our domain. The British flag, too, is friendly. However, by what right does it fly over the Turtle islands, off Sandakan? It does, though the British Foreign Office knows, and frankly admits, the Turtle is lands are ours, being within the treaty boundaries of the Philippines. No objec tion could possibly be made were we to hoist our own flag and request that the other be taken down. But we don’t seem to bother, we just let such things go. A little matter of assertion of sovereignty, what is that for America to do? And final ly, would it be altruistic? If it were not that it might not be popular in campaigns. Perry conceived a dispersed America in the far east, not mere trading posts and naval stations. He had the logic of history behind him in this. Portugal was the first vantageously for the islands than the im migration law which limits Chinese immi gration to the merchant, trading and pro fessional classes and presumes rigidly to exclude farmers and workmen. The Jap anese who are coming to the Philippines are, for the most part, going into Mindanao and putting new lands into production; but this class of Chinese cannot come into the islands now, even if they would. It may not be argued from this that they would come, even if the law permitted; though it may be assumed that they might be induced to come under contract. In ducements were offered at various times under Spain—who sometimes wanted the Chinese and sometimes wished to drive them away—but the traders and merchants, with a sprinkling of craftsmen, always came whether precisely welcome or not, and the farmers never did. Conditions haven’t changed under the United States, save that the bar is up for the productive element. Much Chinese capital, amassed in the Philippines, is em ployed in production of wealth, but scarcely any Chinese brawn. In the case of the Japanese, the country is acquiring farmers and workmen as well as merchants and traders. The following figures are upon Chinese immigration into the Philippines from 1919, the year following the last census, to 1925. of the westerns out to the east, and clung to the trading post notion—posts and treaties, an idea that, somewhat mutated by time, Washington seems to favor. But as soon as Portugal lost control of the seas, she was through in the far east. The Bri tish settlements, on the contrary, have weathered many threatening days. It is Britain herself that is dispersed in the east: there is a leaven to savor the loaf, though the mead itself be foreign. The deportations were no doubt the con sequence of violations of sumptuary laws, such as the opium law. The figures are from the bureau of cus toms. Summarized, they show that during the period from 1919 to 1925 inclusive 99,084 Chinese knocked at our doors, 3,897 were denied admittance under the immigra tion act, 95,187 were admitted as legally entitled to entry into the country, while 85,294 other Chinese voluntarily left the islands and 1,075 were evicted for cause. The greater number among those leaving voluntarily were minors born in the is lands, returning to China to be educated under the care of their mothers or other relatives, this being the custom. Also, most of the Chinese coming into the islands are youths who have completed their school ing in China and are rejoining their kins men here. But Chinese have taken to educating their children in the Philippines too, for which they voluntarily pay an ad ditional small percentage upon the sales tax; they are, more than formerly, bring ing their families to the Philippines, and are coming to be more and more a com munity apart. Births and deaths in the Chinese com munity of Manila from 1919 to 1925 were as follows, according to the health reports: Year Deaths Births Net Increase 1919 361 369 8 1920 377 511 134 1921 317 570 253 1922 318 529 211 1923 331 561 230 1924 344 639 295 1925 325 639 314 Totals 2,373 3,817 1,445 A lesser numbei- of births of pure Chinese stock must be added for Chinese resident in the provinces; more of them being married to or living with Filipino women, so that 3,000 may cover the birth increase in the Chinese community throughout the Philip pines since the census of 1918 was taken. One is compelled to resort to these assump tions because the statistics in the bureau of health have not been compiled; it would be a fortnight’s work to compile them. Fastening therefore upon 3,000 as the approximate increase by birth of the Chinese population of the islands since 1918, the actual increase including that by immigra tion is found to be 11,818. While this gives the islands a Chinese population of approximately 55,000, lay estimates are that it is no less than 70,000 or 80,000. There is said to be clandestine entry into the islands by way of Sulu and Mindanao. Wherever a new settlement is established, the Chinese goes to trade. He may be rob bed and killed, and his little general store burned. This doesn’t matter, to the com munity; another Chinese takes his place and a record goes down in the consular of fice. Customary laws largely prevail among the Chinese; a great deal of their business is transacted without the exchange either of money or checks. As everyone knows, there are two dis tinct communities# the Cantonese and the Amoyese, numerically as one to three in the order mentioned. The Cantonese are dubbed Macaos by Filipinos, who call the