Foreign News: COLONIALISM REVISITED

A representative of a land once ruled over first by Spain and then by the U.S., Francisco A. Delgado, 74, white-haired delegate of the Philippines, knows something about colonialism. Last week in the U.N. he did some plain speaking about it:

We hold no brief for Western colo nial imperialism. We were a Spanish colony for nearly 400 Years? and we fared no worse and no better than the other 20-odd colonies of Spain during the heyday of its imperial glory . . The Americans came to the Philippines in 1898 in the course of the Spanish-American War. At the time, we were on the point of winning our revolutionary struggle against Spain. Our troops were knocking at the very gates of Manila. The Americans of offered to assist us, and we accepted them as allies. Later, however, they decided to occupy our country on the ground that we needed to learn how to govern ourselves. We fought them bitterly for four years . . .

“Was American colonial rule more virtuous than most? That may be a matter of opinion, but the fact of the matter is that the U.S., during the 40 years of its domination of the Philippines, did initiate a number of unorthodox policies for colonialism. They set up a program for the advanced education of hundreds of Filipino students in American universities— a policy which anticipated by 50 Years the present Fulbright program of exchange students. They constructed hospitals. They permitted our people the full enjoyment of civil liberties. They developed and strengthened our democratic institutions. The Americans are no saints, but this you can say of them: as imperialists, they proved to be more inept than their rivals in the game; they allowed us too many liberties ; and now that we are independent, they know better than to disregard our opinions or to ignore our rights.

“Here is one little interesting detail: you can discuss, argue and talk back to the Americans, as we have discussed, argued and talked back to them during all the years of our subjection and since—without being slapped down or getting shot at dawn. One wonders, sometimes, what would happen to a Latvian or an Estonian or a Lithuanian who talked back to Mr. Khrushchev? We know, of course, what happened to the Hungarians, who did just that.”