In Zamboanga. The Mayon arrived with Yulo, Quirino and Rodriguez, Santos, Fellers and many others, and Peters, Wolff and I shifted to the Mayon for Manila.
Interview with Johnson who has been here since ’99 and was an agent for Governor Frank Carpenter whom we discussed–he said Carpenter was a public servant thru and thru and perfectly coldblooded; knew everything that was going on from his agents and especially from Filipina women. Said the only way for a white man to succeed down here was by keeping active every day. Most of the fifty Americans who had settled in Zamboanga Province had gone in for loafing and booze, and lived on their Filipina wives. He was broke when in 1932 copra went down and he was left with nothing but debts–subsequently, he paid them all off and last year was assessed for the largest income tax in the Province, on an income of 50,400 pesos. It came from dealing in cutch and copra, and from stevedoring and automobile agencies. He remarked that the Chinese down here come as coolies, get a little tienda at some cross-roads and in ten years own all the property around–they plant nothing and create nothing–send to China for their “sons” (made by parcel post)! The Japanese on the other hand created plantations and improved and developed the country, and lived like highly civilized beings with all the modern conveniences. He greatly preferred the latter.