THE PHILIPPINES -MANILA
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The principal articles of import into the Philippines of which the United States are now furnishing considerably more than any other country, are: Art works, including paintings and statuary, watches, glass and glassware, telegraph and other electrical machinery, pipes and fittings, stoves and ranges, trunks and valises, plated ware, agricultural implements, saws, wheat, flour, raw cotton, honey, pumps and pump machinery, safes, unuranufactured leather, malt liquors, wooden ware, oil cloth, patent and proprietary medicines, printers' ink, typewriting machinery, scales and balances, harness and saddles, paper, varnish, wool, carpets and lubricating oils,
The United Kingdom leads in the following :-fron and steel, and their finished forms (taken as a whole), condensed milk, tea, zine and manufactures; copper and its finished forms, window glass, sap, turpentine, fertilizers, cotton goods (taken as a whole), butter, steam vessels, paints, pigments and colours, linseed oil.
Germany leads in the following:- Brass and its finished forms, chemicals, drugs (except opium), and dyes, needles, pins and surgical instruments, firearms, lamps furniture, barley, hops, rails for railways, printing presses, pianos and organs, wearing apparel (woollen), woollen yarn, celluloid and its products, hats and caps, builders harddware, entlery, sewing machines, wooilen cloth, and laundry machines,
The total trade in 1905 was £12,701,064, an increase of £955,618 over that of 1901, which was a year of considerable depression. For the first time since the occupation of the Philippine Islands by the United States, the value of the exports exceeded that of the imports into the islands, the surplus being £680,814. The import trade showed a decrease of £752,166 as compared with the year 1993, but an increase of £91,564 over the returns for 1904.
The policy of the United States towards the Philippines was defined by President Roosevelt in his message to Congress in December 1904. “At present," he said, "the Philippine people are utterly incapable of existing in independence at all, or of building up a civilisation of their own. I firmly believe we can help them to rise higher and higher in the secale of civilisation and of capacity for self-government, and most earnestly hop that in the end they will be able to stand, if not entirly alone, yet in some such relation to the United States as Cuba now stands." Section 7 of the Act of Congress, approved July 1, 1902, provides: --"That two years after the completion and publication of the census, in case such condition of general and complete pe ice, with recognition of the authority of the United States, shall have continued in the terrritory of said islands not inhabited by Moros or other non-Christian tribes the President shall direct said Commission to call a general election for the choice of delegates to a popular Assembly of the people of the said territory in the Philippine Islands, which shall be known as the Philippine Assembly. After said Assembly shall have convened and organised, all the legislative power heretofore conferred on the Philippine Commission in all that part of said islands not inhabited by Moros or other non-Christian tribes shall be vested in a Legislature consisting of two Houses-the Philippine Commission and the Philippine Assembly." It has been announced that President Roosevelt will direct the Philippine Commission to hold a general election of delegates to the first Philippine Assembly on March 27th
1907.
MANILA
Manila, the capital of the Philippines, is situated on the western side of the island of Luzon, at the mouth of the river Pasig, which empties itself into the Bay of Manila, and the city is now held by the forces of the United States. War having been declared between the United States and Spain, the fleet of the former on the 1st May, 1898, sailed into Manila Bay and totally destroyed the Spanish fleet, practically with no loss to the attacking side. Thereafter the city was blockaded until the 13th August, when, a Military force having arrived, the Americans took possession after an almost unresisted assault.
The city was founded in 1571. In 1645 it was almost entirely destroyed by an earthquake, in which upwards of three hundred lives were lost. In 1863 a great part of the city was again destroyed from the same cause, and in July, 1880, another terrible upheaval made wreck of a great portion of it. The dwelling-houses are built with especial reference to safety under such circumstances, and, although large, possess few pretensions to architectural beauty. The city is practically divided into two parts, the official or walled city being built on the left bank of the Pasig river, while the commercial city is situated on the island of Binondo, which forms the right bank of the same river. The Escolta the main business street, traverses this suburb, and in it most
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