d have confidence in him,
and showed it on all occasions.

Meanwhile we lost no opportunity to inform ourselves as to
conditions and events, conferring with Filipinos from various parts
of the archipelago and with Chinese, Germans, Frenchmen, Belgians,
Austrians, Englishmen, Spaniards and Americans. Among the witnesses
who came before us were farmers, bankers, brokers, merchants,
lawyers, physicians, railroad men, shipowners, educators and public
officials. Certainly all classes of opinion were represented, and
when we were called upon by the President, a little later, for a
statement of the situation we felt fully prepared to make it.

Blount has charged that the commission attempted to interfere with the
conduct of the war, and cites a cablegram from General Otis stating
that conferences with Insurgents cost soldiers' lives in support of
this contention. No conference with Insurgent leaders was ever held
without the previous knowledge and approval of the general, who was
himself a member of the commission.

Late in April General Luna sent Colonel Arguelles of his staff to ask
for a fifteen days' suspension of hostilities under the pretext of
enabling the Insurgent congress to meet at San Fernando, Pampanga,
on May 1, to discuss the situation and decide what it wanted to
do. He called on the commission and urged us to ask Otis to grant
this request, but we declined to intervene, and General Otis refused
to grant it.

Mabini continued Luna's effort, sending Arguelles back with letters to
Otis and to the commission. In the latter he asked for "an armistice
and a suspension of hostilities as an indispensable means of arriving
at peace," stating explicitly that the Philippine government "does not
solicit the armistice to gain a space of time in which to reenforce
itself."

The commission again referred Arguelles to General Otis on the matter
of armistice and suspension of hostilities. We suspected that the
statement that these things were not asked for in order to gain time
was false, and this has since been definitely established.

Taylor says:--

"On April 11 Mabini wrote to General Luna (Exhibit 719) that
Aguinaldo's council was of the opinion that no negotiations for the
release of the Spanish prisoners should be considered unless the
American Commission agreed to a suspension of hostilities for the
purpose of treating, not only in regard to the prisoners, but for
the purpose of opening negotiations between A