THE PHILIPPINES
་་
1
The Philippines, which was named in honour of King Philip II of Spain, has been picturesquely described as "a magnificent rosary of glowing islands that nature has hung about the heaving bosom of the warm Pacific." The archipelago is bounded on the north and west by the China Sea, on the east by the Pacific Ocean, and on the scuth by the Celebes and Sulu Seas.. The land area is 114,400
while the land and sea square miles,
area embraced within the treaty boundaries is
is 833,000 square miles, which is greater than the land and water area of Great Britain and Ireland. The Philippines extends from North to South between 5 and 22 North Latitude, and from East to West between 117 and 127 East Longitude, or approximately 1200 miles from North to South, and 700 miles from East to West.
AREA AND POPULATION
The total area of the Philippines is 114,400 square miles. This is slightly less than the total area of the British Isles.
The Philippine Archipelago is composed of 7,083 islands, of which 2,441 are named and 4,642 are not. There are 11 important islands, each of which has an area of more 5. 1,000 square miles. Luzon has an area of 40,814 square miles; Leyte 2,799; Cebu, 1,695; Bohol, 1,534; and Masbate, 1,255.
The Archipelago is divided into three great groups of islands designated as Luzon, the Visayas, and Mindanao. Luzon includes the provinces of Abra, Albay, Bataan, Batangas, Bulacan, Cagayan, Camarines Norte, Camarines Sur, Cavite, Ilocos Norte, Ilocos Sur, Isabela, Laguna, La Union, Mountain Pro- vince, Nueva Ecija, Nueva Vizcaya, Pampanga, Pangasinan, Rizal, Sorsogon, Tayabas and Zambales, and the islnd-provinces of Batanes, Marinduque, Mas- bate and Mindoro. The second group, the Visayas, is made up of the provin ces of Antique, Capiz and Iloilo, on the island of Panay; Occidental Negros and Oriental Negros, on the island of Negros; and the individual island-pro- vinces of Bohol, Cebu, Leyte, Romblon, Samar and Palawan. The third group, Mindanao, is made up of the provinces of Agusan, Bukidnon, Cotabato, Davao, Lanao, Oriental Misamis, Occidental Misamis, Surigao, Zamboanga and a cluster of islands forming the province of Sulu.
According to census of 1939, the total population of the Philippines is 16,000,303, including 117,487 Chinese, 29,057 Japanese, 8,709 Americans, 4,627 Spanish and 2,130 British subjects (of whom 1,053 are natives of Great Britain, 59 of Ireland, 62 of Canada and 914 of India). The Filipinos are chiefly of Malay race and mainly Christians (Roman Catholic). The Moros in Mindanao and other southern islands are Mohamedans, while the uncivilised tribes are Pagan.
About half the remainder are Mohammedans (in the south) and the other half pagans.
PHYSOCAL FEATURES AND CLIMATE
The coastline includes many fertile coastal plains. Added to these are the Central Plain, the Cagayan and Bicol Valleys of Luzon; the Central Plain of Panay; and the Agusan and Cotabato Valleys of Mindanao. Most of the large islands are erossed by well-defined ranges, running, as a rule, in a north and south direction; Mount Apo, in south-eastern Mindanao, is the highest peak, with an altitude of 9,690 feet.
The part of the archipelago north of the islands of Mindanao and Sulu comes within the typhoon area and violent storms are of frequent occurrence during the rainy season July to September inclusive.
D1