Quezon Speaks Out

If the U.S. goes to war in the Pacific, her first defensive problem will be the Philippines. What happens there depends mightily on President Manuel Luis Quezon, volcanic, theatrical, temperamental, ambitious politico of 62 crowded years, called the smartest politician in Asia, whom even tuberculosis cannot keep in bed when he gets excited about something. And last week President Quezon finally placed himself on record for the first time about where he stands on World War II.

He was still weak, but not too weak to make his pledge strong--that he and his people would support the U.S. if the U.S. should find itself at war. It was Loyalty Day, a new holiday in the Philippines, with 100,000 demonstrating in Manila alone. Said President Quezon:

"We owe our loyalty to America and we are bound to her by bonds of everlasting gratitude. Should the United States enter the war, she will find all of the people in this country, to the last man, on her side. Our stake in this war is our own future independence, and assurance that independence may endure."

Quezon can ordinarily count on about 75 or 85% of the vote on any issue he puts up to the Filipinos. By masterly handling of patronage (he even appoints the village schoolteachers), by a passionate love of all things Filipino (except the opposition), and by a colorful personality that keeps him bounding into the limelight, he has kept first place among Island politicos for 21 years. But when the war broke out, Quezon was sick. U.S. observers were worried by his silence, his brooding on his yacht, his long rest-cure treatment at the health resort of Baguio in the hills. After his lifelong fight for Philippine independence, it seemed stranger still that he did not respond to the gigantic world struggle for democracy, with all that it meant to the independence of small nations.

But last week he responded--and all Asia heard him.

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