I took the ship service this morning and spoke on the God of the Rainbow. I am reading Pratts Faiths of India. And Dr. Laubach The People of the Philippines which the author gave me. I was met by him at Manila and taken to the Union Theol. Sem. where I addressed the students, about 100. Then we spent the day seeing the city. At noon a luncheon was given me at the Cosmos Club and I spoke to about 50 selected guests on International Fellowship interpreting the F.O.R. and Quaker position. It was a bold venture but it worked admirably. In fact I won the attention and real sympathy of all who were there. I kept hearing the effects all next day. In the evening, we had a splendid gathering of the missionaries and their wives. I discussed with them the situation in China and answered their numerous questions. It was a rare occasion to talk with a noble band of modern miracle-workers, for they are nothing less than that. The next morning I went to Dr. Laubach’s class in Sociology and spent the hour asking these wideawake, keen young Philippinoes questions about national and international problems and issues. They are intense patriots and to a person are heart and soul for independence. I have never seen, not even in Canton, such passion for self-government and national independence. They insist that there is no native in the islands who does not live for independence. At 9.30, I addressed the students of the Sem. and the High School jointly. There were about 400, half women. They were quick as a flash to catch my points and any touches of humor. It was another world from China. Every face was alert and full of light. They are much more wide-awake and immensely quicker and much more religious in nature and spirit. The rose and stood to show their appreciation of my message, which seemed to mean a lot to them. I visited all the Y.M.C.A’s of the city, the central one, the Philippino one, the Chinese one, and the Army and Navy one. It is a great work under splendid leaders. We had breakfast with the little band of workers who have come out to organize a Y.W.C.A. I finished my morning with a quite remarkable interview with Dr Kalaw Dean of Arts and Science in the Univ. of the Phil. He is one of the foremost men in the Islands, a scholar, a statesman, a brave man. He is one of the most impressive persons I have met in there East. Like all the rest he is dedicated to independence. He says that the hardest tragedy of American occupation is the fact that but for our coming they would have won their freedom from Spain which was almost when Dewey came. He feels that Pres. Coolidge does not understand the situation and has not felt the inner life and aspirations of the Philippine people. He feels that Gen. Wood has approached all the work in the islands as a military man, not as a sympathetic statesman. He told of Gen. Wood’s first Cabinet meeting when he read the message prepared for the Legislature and without asking any advice or counsel said: “I have written that for the good of the people good day gentleman, I shall send it as it stands.”
I profoundly hope we shall not truffle with these remarkable people, that we shall not embitter them or spoil our own chance of losing one of the finest deeds in history.