Philippines
p. 30 · Read in the full issue
The Future Of The
"Nation Which Controls This Group, Controls Asia"
From Our Own Correspondent
Honolulu, Oct. 25.
* ■ J HERE is plenty of food for thought 4 for Australasians in the new book, Colonial Policies of the States, by Col, Theodore Roosevelt, former Governor General of the Philippines.
He analyses the effect of independence on the Filipino peoples and America’s forthcoming abandonment of the islands.
He writes: “. . . I believe the Philippine Islands are a necessary adjunct to the
Japanese scheme. The nation which con trols these islands controls Asia, for they lie across all ocean trade routes and Asia’s foreign commerce is largely water borne . . . Japan must either own or control this claim of islands . . .”
Col. Roosevelt points out that 80 per cent of the Philippine export trade is with the United States, and that the over whelming portion of export material is sugar. When tariff walls provide a barrier to free entry of sugar to the United States, revenues of the Government will fall, taxes will increase, defence will be a problem of the Filipinos and the stan dard of living will drop to meet a lowered national income.
He does not believe that the Philippine Government will be able to maintain it self in an independent status.