What they wanted was a force of several thousand Filipinos, trained and commanded by American Army officers, either from the regular Army or from the volunteers. The same thing had been done with success by the British in India and the Straits Settlements, by the Dutch in Java and by our own General Davis in Puerto Rico, and as the insurrectionary force had dwindled to a few bands and to scattered groups of murderers and ladrones , so acknowledged by everybody, there was no reason why a native constabulary should not be employed to clear these out.

This plan was among the first things submitted to General Chaffee, but he was evidently not impressed. “Pin them down with a bayonet for at least ten years” was a favourite expression of Army sentiment which sometimes made the Commissioners’ explanations to the natives rather difficult.

General Wright, on behalf of the Commission, called on General Chaffee and was much surprised to learn that he had not even read the Constabulary bill which had been passed some time before and held up pending the hoped for opportunity to carry it into effect. When General Wright explained the purport of the measure General Chaffee said:

“I am opposed to the whole business. It seems to me that you are trying to introduce something to take the place of my Army.”