Insular K. K. K.

Two affairs last week in the Philippines may well have caused Secretary of War Weeks to reflect upon his island charge : 1) On the 25th anniversary of the proclamation of the "Philippine Republic" Emilio Aguinaldo motored peaceably side by side with Governor General Wood to Malolos, a town about 30 miles north of Manila. General Wood made a speech declaring that the Filipinos' desire for independence was "natural and creditable" and that "all should cooeperate in establishing conditions precedent to independence." Aguinaldo, in full agreement, unveiled a monument commemorating the founding of the erstwhile republic.

2) On the same day, about 500 miles to the south, on the northeast tip of the second largest island of the Archipelago, Mindanao, a lieutenant and twelve men of the Philippine Constabulary were cut off from their base, the town of Placer, by "Colorums," fanatics. On the following day Colonel Bowers with another detachment landed on Bucas Island, adjoining this coast, and, under cover of machine-gun fire from the gunboat Sacramento, burned a town held by 600 Colorums. General Wood's yacht Apo was proceeding to the same region with reinforcements; for the Colorums in repeated attacks had killed some score of the constabulary -- although the fanatics themselves lost about four times that number.

In the light of Philippine history these are most contradictory events, and reach back some years for explanation. They go back to the 1890's, when Josee Rizal, a Filipino educated abroad, a sort of Voltaire with a streak of Lenin, founded a reform party, the Liga Filipina, to fight the political domination of the islands by Spanish friars. He was exiled from Manila to Mindanao -- the island where the present outbreaks are occurring. His followers then entered a secret society, the Kalastansen, Kagalanagland Katipunan, "the Supremely Perfect and Virtuous Union for Freedom." Its members were known as Kalastrums.* The slogans of this supremely perfect and virtuous union are "Death to all foreigners" and "To freedom by the knife, the cord and the poisoned spike." It is, by certain authorities, credited with 13,000 assassinations. The attempts of the Spaniards to put down the Katipunan resulted (1896) in an insurrection led by Emilio Aguinaldo. During the insurrection Rizal was executed by a firing squad in Manila. About a year later Aguinaldo made a treaty with the Spaniards and retired to China. The next year Aguinaldo was brought back by the Americans when Dewey captured Manila. Aguinaldo with his followers conquered most of the island of Luzon except the city of Manila. At Malolos, 25 years ago, Aguinaldo set up the Philippine Republic and proclaimed himself its first President-- hence the ceremony last week. But when America decided to hold the islands, at least for a time, Aguinaldo led a new revolution. It soon developed into guerrilla warfare, and two years later, in the Spring of 1901, Aguinaldo was captured and the revolution collapsed. So much for history. Now at the ripe age of 54, but still youthful in appearance, Aguinaldo lives near Manila, a leading citizen, still technically a Colorum, at peace with the world. In the recent outbreaks of Philippine politicians against General Wood (TIME, July 30), it was Aguinaldo who urged the Filipinos to remain calm and resort to no violence. But southward in Mindanao the Katipunan has resumed its supremely perfect and virtuous assassinations. Word is passing that Rizal has been resurrected--a not unexpected event because of a rite of the Katipunan known as "marriage of the Dead." In fact Pedro Domenico, a co-dictator with Rizal in the Katipunan, but as far as present history goes a legendary character, has frequent resurrections, for his name frequently is signed to the orders of the Katipunan. In the south of the Archipelago these two, Rizal and Domenico, go on their illustrious and deadly way, while Aguinaldo in the north treads the paths of peace.

* "Kalastrum" is translated to mean "supreme perfection."