News from the Philippines
It is now admitted even by the War Department that the “water cure” administered by American soldiers in the Philippines proved fatal in at least one case. A Catholic priest, a friend of the insurgents, died as the result of the “water cure” administered to him by the soldiers. These soldiers, however, have long since been mustered out, and the department has no power to punish them. The number of the natives who succumbed to this treatment will never be known. The Philippine commission has appropriated $2,000,000 (Mexican) for the purchase of rice for sale at cost to the poor of the islands in the districts where rice is scarce. The sultan of Bacolod is now professing friendship for the Americans and denying acts of hostility. In some of the provinces the Ladrones are again active, and the government is planning active operations for their suppression.