Abolition of the Bureau of Non-Christian Tribes is announced pending a commission which is to be substituted. It is alleged that the Moros (and Pagans?) object to the designation!
Two articles in the Press show the difficulty of running a government on Quezon’s method of never consulting newspapers:
(a) Memo. by General MacArthur, in answer to Press criticisms, explaining that the selection of Generals for the new Philippine Army was made without any influence from Quezon.
(b) Vargas’ explanation of a suggested new yacht for the government, was not merely for Quezon but to replace the Bustamante, the old cable ship, which became more expensive to repair than to substitute a new ship. An editorial in the Bulletin showing that “if a frank statement of intent had been made in the first place etc.”–and concluding: “no apologies are needed.” Quezon gives himself most reluctantly to the press–tho he is not nearly as neglectful of it as I used to be!
Ambrosio–for the past twenty-five years N° 1 chauffeur at Malacañan Palace, came to see me; he says Murphy will not return–(he is now High Commissioner Murphy’s chauffeur); this may be “servant’s gossip” but Ambrosio is in a position to hear a lot!
One hour and a half with Dr. Roxas and Unson at the Survey Board; Roxas expounding the necessity for a fixed and sufficient income for research work–says we must prepare for the “diversification” of industries. He and Unson ridicule the idea that the Philippine Government cannot exist without the fat sugar industry.
After Roxas left, Unson told me confidentially that “something very important” was pending in top circles, and that Quezon would have to return from Hong Kong by the 18th. It is a discussion of the relations of the Philippines with the United States and Japan. If Japan will not undermine the sovereignty of the Philippines, but merely wants trade here, it might be a good idea, according to Unson, to make some arrangement with Japan, in view of the “wobbling” of the United States’ attitude towards the Philippine problem. “We are here in the Orient, and here we stay.” This all-important question was possibly brought to the front by the Davao land muddle. Unson says that he and Vicente Singson wrote recently withdrawing from a dinner group at Wak-Wak because they found at the first dinner held that it was intended for them all to be committed to using their best efforts at whatever cost to secure retention of the United States’ market. Unson says there are plenty of other leading Filipinos who are restive under “too much sugar” in politics. They want to prepare for independence by planning the economic future. (Dr. Roxas is apparently of the same view.)