Sentimental Journey

Last week Colonel Carmi Alderman Thompson, onetime member of the Ohio Gang, now personal researcher for the Big White President, continued his critical observations from aboard the Filipino- financed Bustamente (TIME, July 26, et seq.). Slowly the little steamer pushed through hundreds of emerald islets in a turquoise sea beneath azure heavens--on, on to Cuyo Island, veritable Eden in the Sulu Sea. Col. Thompson, pleased, ambled beneath outlandish cocoanut palms, low luscious mangoes. No phones, newspapers, railroads, trolleys or automobiles marred this hot perfection. Ah, to be a barefoot native! . . . But business pressed. Mr. Thompson reluctantly doffed his white helmet to the glistening coral beach, proceeded to the Island of Palawan where a launch took him up the Iwahig River to the Iwahig Penal Colony. Here he saw crocodiles, alligators, exuberant tropic vegetation. He saw, also, 1,700 convicts living happily with their wives and children, cultivating their own crops, often saving as much as $1,000 in one term. They rarely try to escape, even though there are no walls or bars. The officers in the colony have only three firearms: the superintendent carries an automatic and has a shotgun for hunting, the keeper of the funds also has a pistol. The Colonel found the system ideal, again doffed his helmet, proceeded on his way to Mindoro,* to Sulu, where a sultan reigns, finally past Corregidor/- and back into Manila, where he told the press that the only unpleasant part of his sentimental journey had been the parades of febrile natives carrying such signs as "No Bacon sandwich for us"** and many another similar legend. Enterprising Manila politicians had prepared and shipped these placards out to the islands which lay in Col. Thompson's path.

The Colonel then desired to seek further information in the Visayan Islands; cabled to Washington for permission to use the U. S. destroyer Merritt lying idle in Manila Bay. The War Department answered, "Sorry, no funds."

*Upon Mindoro ("Mine of Gold"), now known as "Malaria Island," are situated the famed Havemeyer sugar plantations. /-Once upon a time there eloped from Cavite, ancient Spanish Philippine settlement, a nun and a friar who were pursued by the high sheriff (el corregidor). The nun was caught on a little island off Manila Bay now named Lamonja (the nun) ; the friar on an islet now called El Fraile (the friar) ; previously the sheriff had futilely searched for them in the island jungles of what is now Corregidor. Today, El Fraile is but a stone turret for U. S. guns, is known as "the stationary battleship." But experts consider Corregidor to be as impregnable as Gallipoli or Gibraltar ; its heavy armaments have longer range than the guns of any existent warship. **The Bacon Bill provides for a separate government for the southern islands (where the Moros live) and strengthens the authority of the Governor General.