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Without the $620 million the U.S. has promised the Philippines for war damages, reparations, public works and the purchase of U.S. surplus property, the newest and poorest nation on earth could never hope to outlive its first free month. Without the Bell Act, which the U.S. Congress passed April 30, it could probably not last a year. This act gives the Philippines eight years of free trade with the U.S., then 20 years during which tariffs will be upped gradually until they are in line with the rest of U.S. tariff policy. It will be a mighty crutch to the young and apprehensive Republic.
Yet no hint of defeat crept into Manuel Roxas' prepared Independence Day speech to his countrymen. Said he: "In the world of affairs we irretrievably subscribe to the principles enunciated by the great leaders of the American revolution, to the cause and program being led today by the U.S. The system of free but guided enterprise is our system. We will defend it against the ideological onslaughts . . . of anti-democratic creeds. The proponents of these views will be protected in their right to hold and openly advocate them. They will not be protected in subversive schemes to destroy the structure of the nation. . . ."
Wherever the future looked most troubled and unpredictable, President Roxas painted it over with a protective coloring of red, white and blue. For the future of the Philippine Republic would unequivocally depend on the U.S., which had given the Filipinos freedom, and could be counted on to see that no one took it away from them.
*Last week, the body of Manuel Quezon, who died at Saranac Aug. 1, 1944, and was buried in Arlington National Cemetery, was en route back to the Philippines aboard the U.S. carrier Princeton.
*For which it eventually paid Spain $22 million conscience money.