diced b Jos e S. Arc a, - non

has exercised on this Government. To weaken, then, that influence as far as Icould, I had to consecrate and I have consecrated all my energies, extremelyweak and opposed as they are, that it might be rationally licit for me to soften itby raising here by myself a question, of great import doubtless, but not as urgentas that which has put in doubt not only our right, but even the reality itself of ourpolitical entity!'OFFICIAL LETTER FROM MALCAMPOThe government's weakness before the European powers was manifestedwhen Admiral Jose Malcampo, Alaminos' successor in thePhilippines, former Minister and former President of the Council of Ministers,tried Jacob Zobel Zangroniz for treason. A simple unofficial interventionof the German Plenipotentiary in Spain sufficed to have an ordercabled to the Philippine Governor that before implementing whateversentence was reached, the latter should await further orders from Madrid.Malcampo obeyed, but on 21 March 1875, he wrote in detail:For some years now mercenary plans in relation to these Islands have beenattributed to Germany, and in the Ministry of Your Excellency this is proven bycommunications in the year 73 between this Governor General and ourAmbassador in Washington. It is also proven that a society of German agentssupposedly founded in Hongkong is charged with having aided the Cavitemutiny with funds. It was said afterwards that, to attain their objectives, theGerman plan called for the occupation of Formosa, support for the Joloanos, andthe provocation of a rebellion within [the colony]. Given these factors, it is notsurprising that public opinion has marked Mr. Zobel as the [German]Government's agent, considering his sympathy for the insurgents of Cavite, andthe circumstance of his having been educated in Germany, his being the son of aGerman, and his occasional claim that he enjoys an influence in that country.When I dissolved the masonic lodges which were in existence here, I knew thathe had secretly told some that he had written to Germany in order that Bismarckmight demand from the Government the expulsion of the friars from thePhilippines 34 'REGIDOR'S STATEMENTS •The admiral who signed the preceding letter figured in Philippine history "as the founder of freemansonry, thanks to the pen of Antonio Ma. Regidor,one of those implicated and condemned as an accomplice in the Cavite,,mutiny by Bonifacio Octavo. But Malcampo would be a curious and unusual'21