The claim of the Philippines to independence has received a
temporary check as a result of President Coolidge's note to the chairman of the Philippine Independence Mission now in Washington, and as the Literary Digest observes, it is apparent that the President shares the opinion of Governor Leonard Wood, Governor- General of the Islands, that the people of the Philippines have not yet proved their capacity to stand alone. Inter alia President Coolidge said :— " A considerable section of the Filipino people is, further, of the opinion that at this time any change which would weaken the tie between the Filipinos and the American nation would be a mis- fortune to the islands. The world is in a state of high tension and unsettlement. The possibility of either economic or political disorders, calculated to bring misfortune, if not disaster, to the Filipino people, unless they are strongly supported, is not to be ignored. Although they have made wonderful advances in the last quarter century, the Filipino people are by no means equipped, either in wealth or experience, to undertake the heavy burden which would be imposed upon them with political independence."
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