Delcasse. Among other questions to be agreed upon
and embodied in the treaty was the future of the Philippines. For
Washington officials these Islands really constituted a _terra
incognita_. Maj.-General Merritt and a number of other officials went
to Paris to give evidence before the Commission. At their request,
conveyed to me through the American Embassy, I also proceeded to
Paris in October and expressed my views before the Commissioners, who
examined me on the whole question. The Cuban debts and the future of
the Philippines were really the knotty points in the entire debate. The
Spanish Commissioners argued (1) that the single article in the
Protocol relating to the Philippines did not imply a relinquishment
of Spanish sovereignty over those Islands, but only a temporary
occupation of the city, bay, and harbour of Manila by the Americans
pending the conclusion of a treaty of peace. (2) That the attack on
Manila, its capitulation, and all acts of force consequent thereon,
committed _after_ the Protocol was signed, were unlawful because the
Protocol stipulated an immediate cessation of hostilities; therefore
the Commissioners claimed indemnity for those acts, a restoration
to the _status quo ante_, and "the immediate delivery of the place
(Manila) to the Spanish Government" (_vide_ Annex to Protocol No. 12
of the Paris Peace Commission conference of November 3).

The American Commissioners replied: (1) "It is the contention on the
part of the United States that this article leaves to the determination
of the treaty of peace the entire subject of the future government and
sovereignty of the Philippines necessarily embodied in the terms used
in the Protocol." (2) It is erroneous to suggest "that the ultimate
demands of the United States in respect of the Philippines were
embodied in the Protocol." (3) That there was no cable communication
with Manila, hence the American commanders could not possibly have been
informed of the terms of the Protocol on the day of its signature. The
Spanish Commissioners, nevertheless, tenaciously persisting in their
contention, brought matters to the verge of a resumption of hostilities
when the American Commissioners presented what was practically an
ultimatum, in which they claimed an absolute cession of the Islands,
offering, however, to pay to Spain $20,000,000 gold, to agree, for a
term of years, to admit Spanish ships and merchandise into the Islands
on the same terms as American s