APPENDIX RR. OFFICE OF DISBURSING QUARTERMASTER, The MILITARY SECRETARY, CIVIL BUREAUS, Manila, P. I., July 30, 1900. Division of the Philippines, Manila, P. I. SIR: In obedience to instructions from headquarters military governor in the Philippines, I have the honor to submit the following report of the office of disbursing quartermaster, civil bureaus: This office was opened on April 1, 1900, without supplies of any kind, for the purpose of supplying the various civil bureaus and such other civil offices as might find it necessary to call for assistance from the public civil fund, such as the repair of roads and public buildings, rents, etc. During the month of April the following expenditures were made: Supplies Civil employees . $27, 174. 02 APPENDIX SS. OFFICE OF INSURGENT RECORDS, Treasury Building, Manila, P. I., August 6, 1900. SECRETARY TO MILITARY GOVERNOR IN THE PHILIPPINES, Manila, P. I. SIR: In accordance with your letter of 25th ultimo, I have the honor to make the following report, to include the time when the records were first taken in hand, about December 6, 1899, to the 30th of June of the present year: On or about December 6, 1899, there were in one of the offices of the then Department of the Pacific three boxes of captured insurgent records, which at that date were placed under charge of a sergeant detailed for that purpose. On December 10 six additional boxes and a bundle of maps were also placed under his charge. By direction of General Otis an examination was made of these, and an inventory of the same was rendered to him. Having read the inventory, he considered the papers of such value that he directed that they should thereafter be kept under guard after office hours. After this time the accumulation of captured records became so great that they were moved from the adjutant-general's office to a room provided for the purpose in the treasury building, and an officer (Maj. Alexander Rogers, Fourth Cavalry) was put in charge of them in the month of January, 1900. A few days afterwards he was relieved (on the 17th) by Capt. John R. M. Taylor, Fourteenth Infantry, who retained charge until he was relieved by me, July 10, on account of his regiment having been ordered to China. Up to June 30, 1900, there have been 53 letters received; 67 letters sent; 50 boxes, various sizes, documents received; 16 packages of various sizes documents received; 1 bundle of maps received. The most important and interesting documents such, for instance, as throw light upon disputed questions relating to our occupation—are translated as they come to light and a copy submitted to the military governor, another copy being filed with the original document. Reference to these documents is had by means of index cards. There are now on file for reference 2,703 papers. Other documents now in the bureau unfiled will be filed as rapidly as possible. Fifty-five record books have been filed. Among them are to be found: Revolutionary government treasury cash and other account books. Register of letters and orders received and sent by the secretary of war. Reports of insurgent spies in Manila. Portfolio containing draft and documents of Biac-na-bate treaty. Three registers of property. Book of visitors to the president, and many other books of records not yet classified. Among the newspapers filed are to be found. a fairly complete set of the following, appearing to be semiofficial: La Independencia, from the 3d of September, 1898, to 26th of October, 1899. Also a complete file of the following revolutionary organs, appearing to have emanated from the same source, under the various names given below: El Heraldo de la Revolucion, issued semiweekly from September 29, 1898, to 22d of January, 1899. El Heraldo Filipino, from 26th of January, 1899, to 23d March, 1899. These publications contain official decrees and proclamations by Aguinaldo. Besides writings by prominent men connected with the revolution, there are many letters by the same to the president and to each other. These are mostly in Tagalog, selections of which will be translated into English. They appear to bear mainly on political moves and exchanges of individual ideas. In the vaults are 28 boxes of papers of various kinds. I understand that their contents have been examined and selections made and taken out. The remainder have been left until the more pressing work is finished. Among them I mention the following: Indexes to registers of property (land). Registers of property (land). Records of notarial certifications under Spanish rule. Lists of confiscated property of Spaniards and friars. There are also boxes of Filipino stamps of various denominations, amounting to several thousands, two lithographic stones for the printing of Filipino stamps, postage, telegraph, certificate, receipt, and legalized paper. A trunk captured from General Alvarez, containing insurgent uniforms, a surveyor's theodolite, and various hangings and draperies, supposed to have decorated the Filipino congressional hall. These not being a part of the records, the office should not be encumbered with them, and I recommend that they be disposed of elsewhere. Perhaps some of them might be acceptable to the Smithsonian Institution. I desire to invite attention to the valuable services rendered by the native employed to translate from Tagalog and provincial dialects into Spanish, Mr. Casto Nieva. He is a good Spanish scholar and has performed his duties with praiseworthy diligence and fidelity. He possesses a letter from Capt. John R. M. Taylor expressing the same fact. * * * The chief clerk, Mr. Graham, formerly the sergeant aforementioned, and the enlisted men employed from time to time have worked faithfully and well, as is evidenced by the immense amount of work accomplished. For having brought into comparative order a chaotic conglomeration of miscellaneous foreign papers, great credit is due to Capt. John R. M. Taylor, whose work shows remarkable painstaking and administrative ability. The working force of this office on June 30 consisted of the translator from Spanish to English, also acting as chief clerk; one native translator from Tagalog to Spanish; two enlisted men of the Fourteenth Infantry, one as typewriter, one to stamp and file. I relieved Capt. John R. M. Taylor, Fourteenth Infantry, July 10, in accordance with Special Orders, No. 83, current series, Division of the Philippines, July 9, 1900. Very respectfully, FRANK TAYLOR, Captain, Eighth U. S. Infantry, APPENDIX TT. HEADQUARTERS THIRD DISTRICT, DEPARTMENT OF THE VISAYAS, ACTING ADJUTANT-GENERAL, Department of the Visayas, Iloilo, Panay. SIR: As the provisional government established in Negros by competent authority is likely to receive further consideration at an early date, I beg leave, at the risk of making myself very tiresome, to present a brief review of some of the circumstances preceding, attending, and following American occupation of the island. Of the important islands in the Philippine Archipelago, Negros was probably the most conservative and patient under Spanish domination. Though laden with a heavy burden of abuses, her people, industrious by habit and for the greater part engaged in agricultural pursuits, were slow to anger and slower still to raise the hand of violence against the "hardened front of wrong." Nevertheless, on the 6th of November, 1898, conservatism ceased to be laudable, and the Negrenos, taking advantage of Spain's preoccupation with other matters, rose against their old-time rulers, overpowered many of the Spanish garrisons, compelled the surrender of others, and finally forced a capitulation from the local governor under the terms of which the Spanish flag was lowered on the island, the public property was turned over to the provisional government then and there established, and the military and civil officials of Spain, minus their arms, were permitted to leave the island with their private belongings. The overturning of the existing order was wholly accomplished without intervention from Luzon or assistance from Panay. So, the Spanish flag ceased to fly in Negros, and the people who had been the playthings of the centuries found themselves, for the time at least, sudden masters of the pomp and circumstance of power. Yet no act of cruelty or wantonness spoiled the victors' triumph or cursed their new-found liberty. Useless sacrifice of life, there was none; neither did pillaging or looting find countenance or sanction. In fact, everything was done with such moderation and deliberation that if it did not induce the love of the fallen foe it compelled his respect. At the time when Spanish domination ceased in Negros the treaty of Paris had not been concluded. American military occupation of the Philippines was confined to the city of Manila, and not even the wiseacre, who knoweth all things of the past and the present and many of the secrets of the future-much less the ordinary man--could tell whether Spain was to retain the whole or part of the archipelago, or whether by a proper construction of the law and the sentence of the court she was to have none of it. Ultimate events proved that she was to have none of it, but the people of Negros didn't know that and |