diced b Jos e S. Arc a, - non

This foreign intervention was indirect at the moment. Hypothetically Iconsider in the first place that it was not the big powers themselves who werein need, but their traders who manipulated their governments, convincedtheir private interests benefited also their fellow citizens. To obtain supportand aid in their enterprises, colonial capitalism created different conflictsituationsuntil their nation's weaponry was drawn in. The proper tool forsuch involvement was freemasonry which, in Cuba's case, would activelypromote the island's political independence from Spain with economicdependence on the United States. In the Philippines in 1872 freemasonrywould whip the imperialist appetites of England and Germany rather thanthat of the United States, although its English agents frequently acquiredAmerican citizenship for their own interests.°ZALDUA'S DECLARATIONOf the trial which convicted the three Filipino priests and the civilian,Francisco Zaldua, who testified against them, we know only the statementswhich Manuel Artigas copied and published in his Los Sucesos de 1872. Oneof these statements reads:. . . Zamora immediately went to Burgos' house the third time he brought theletters to the latter. He says the same government of Fr. Burgos was promising tolaunch boats into the sea; that Balbino Mauricio was coining from America; thata Spaniard, a certain Estrella, was commissioned to lead the Americansquadron.°From this vague and confused testimony we have a Spaniard who hadcontacts with the North Americans; but to pretend that the United Statessquadron would intervene on behalf of a few rebel sergeants in thePhilippines seems unlikely. This might be an exaggeration about a foreignboat ready to lend aid to the Cavite mutineers, a not completely wildspeculation especially if we keep in mind aid had been given to the Jolopirates who had risen against Spain.ADDITIONS TO THE TRIAL OF VICENTE GENEROSOIn my book 1872 I included a few additional statements by BonifacioOctavo at the end of his trial. The last is as follows:Manila, 29 September 1872, the Fiscal proceeded to Fort Santiago whereBonifacio Vicente Generoso is detained. He was willing to make additionaltestimony, after being notified of the previous one he had made. He said herecalled that on 19 January, on his way to the office of the Arsenal that morning,17