The whole document is written with a frankmss and air
of finality which arc seldom seen in British announce- meats in similar circumstances. Of course, Mr. Coolidge will be ceiticized on the ground that a refusal of inde- pendence comes strangely from Washington. It wilt be remembered that President Wilson promised that the Filipinos should be treated so as deliberately to prepare them for independence. Since then, however, the tendency has been rather to limit than to extend the share in Government taken by the Filipinos. General Leonard Wood, the Governor, abolished the Board of Control—consisting of the Presidents of the two Houses of the Legislature and the Governor—as a deadlock had been reached on the independence question. Colonel Thompson was then sent out to the Philippines to report. He condemned the system of civil administra- tion by officers of the United States Army which had been set up after the abolition of the Board. It k probable that the President intends to act on most of Colonel Thompson's recommendations, which may be described as amounting to a refusal of independence hat a pledge of considerable administrative reform.
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