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January 6, 1929

I said that what I would fear was that when the dilemma was presented between tariff against the Philippines on one side and independence on the other, the American Congress remembering the long-continued demands for immediate independence by the Filipinos would at the behest of the American special interests give the Filipinos immediate independence and disregard the real harm and cruelty which this would do to them.

He agreed with me that this was the chief danger and said, and this was the most keenly significant thing that he said, ‘If I could get a dominion government with free trade advantages, I would do so at the price of giving up all agitation for independence for thirty years and would not hesitate for a moment. By dominion government I do not mean all of the things which a dominion contains which are unfair to the mother country. England has given Canada many things which are highly unfair to England. I don’t ask for those, but if we could get the dominion system, even without those, I would abandon the agitation for independence for thirty years.’