Kris v. Cross

At Manila last week a skeptical people looked independence in the face as their Commonwealth's new unicameral National Assembly met for the first time. The visible features of their new liberty in-eluded: 1) a school system almost broken down by lack of funds; 2) a sickly economic situation due to get worse as Philippine markets are lost behind the rising U. S. tariff wall; 3) the necessity to provide for self-defense, by universal military service, a trained reserve of 400,000 men; 4) a virtually empty treasury. Lest the National Assembly's opening be saddened, its political lord and master, President Manuel Quezon, spoke of these matters in relatively euphemistic terms, although he had to ask for lower income tax exemptions, higher surtaxes, school taxes, taxes on corporate profits, inheritances, luxuries, amusements, mines, transportation, land.

Grave anxiety in the Philippine Bureau of Non-Christian Tribes was a matter Don Manuel did not mention. Nine days prior, from Jolo in the Sulu Archipelago, His Highness Padukka Mahasari Manaluna Hadji Mohammad Jamalul Kiram II, Sultan of Sulu and North Borneo, Judge of Agama, lineal descendant of the Prophet, had ascended to enjoy the limitless quantities of gold, jewels, silks, dates, rice, spitted lamb and beautiful women which await the Faithful in the Mohammedan Paradise. The Sultan, who for some years was the only sovereign reigning under the U. S. flag, lived on the tribute of his 500,000 Moro subjects, plus his pension from the Philippine Government, plus his land rent from British North Borneo Co. With this wealth the Sultan kept a primitive court where he enjoyed the favors of scores of wives in his youth, several in his old age, although he begot no offspring. Three nieces, however, he adopted as his daughters. No sooner had he died than one of them, Princess Dayang Dayang,* began to quarrel with Hadji Butu, the late Sultan's grand vizier, over who was to succeed Kiram II. Dayang Dayang won the first round. Since the Sultan's corpse was rapidly putrefying and could not be buried until a new ruler had been chosen, she secured the appointment of her husband Datu Umbra as Sultan pro tern. Meantime, datus (princes) of the Sulu islands had been advised by Grand Vizier Hadji Butu, ablest and best educated of the Moro patriarchs, to enthrone Datu Rajamuda, only surviving brother of the late Sultan.

On the same day that the National Assembly met in Manila the datus assembled at Jolo, determined to make Rajamuda Sultan. Again the wilful Princess got the best of Hadji Butu. She informed the visiting princes that according to tradition a Sultan of Sulu could not be chosen except by unanimous vote. Therefore they must wait until every datu from the farthest Moro island had arrived. The followers of Rajamuda called her by the names of she-animals. They declared she planned to make herself Sultana or--almost as unforgivable an insult to a warrior race--get the job for her husband, Datu Umbra, or her father-in-law. Datu Amil-bangsa. The princes grumbled, but the proclamation of Rajamuda's accession was withheld and the throne continued last week to tremble in the balance.

To Boss Quezon, sitting at Manila with the legislature eating out of his hand, the Sulu trouble was no musical comedy matter. As Moslems hate Christians, as big men despise pigmies, as warriors scorn men of peace, so the Moros hate, despise, scorn Filipinos. For centuries the children of the Kris harried the children of the Cross. Not till Leonard Wood killed 600 Moros in battle and John J. Pershing slew another 300 did the fierce tribesmen acknowledge the Americans as their masters. Now that they are being turned over to a government of Filipino politicians, they feel that they are being betrayed to an inferior race. Already young Moros conscripted for the new Commonwealth's army have refused to wear broad-brimmed army hats which "cut off their view of heaven." Choice of the next Sultan of Sulu may determine whether the Philippine Commonwealth remains in internal harmony or is thrust into an expensive, disintegrating civil war in the bush.

*Not to be confused with her sister. Princess Tarhata Kiram, who was sent by the Philippine Government to the University of Illinois, along with Emilio Aguinaldo's daughter. She bobbed her hair, apparently became a thoroughgoing flapper, later went home, resumed her sarong, filed her teeth, chewed betel nut, became one of a middle-aged datu's many wives, finally divorced him after he led an unsuccessful revolt, married a widower of 50.

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