Imperial Rule Quotes
The priest had come to the Empress to complain about the debauchery of her Prime Minister and made the error of describing him as the first man of the empire. The story may be apocryphal but it illustrates the character of the Empress. The source of the exact words are given in the historical novel, Luise Muhlbach, Joseph II. and His Court
Crocker’s railroad was way behind schedule for laying of track. The problem was an acute shortage of manpower. Someone suggested that they try Chinese labor. However Crocker’s superintendent of construction, James Strobridge, felt that they were too small, not strong enough, and inexperienced at construction. Soon Crocker had 11,000 Chinese workers. The Chinese were wonderful construction workers and the Southern Pacific Railroad thrived as other employers also began using Chinese workers.
The previous year the Japanese had committed to maintaining the independence of Korea. ({613110}). The Japanese then abrogated their treaty, forced Sunjong to abdicate, assassinated his wife, and annexed the country.
In one of his reports, the term was used and appears to be the earliest use of the phrase that can be found. Dee was perhaps the original Agent 007—see {614640}.
He had concluded that Spain, who then ruled the Philippines, was incompetent, cruel and immoral in its rule, but that the Filipinos were not educated or sophisticated enough to rule themselves. However, he felt that he had to protect our commercial interests in the islands and the region, and was worried that commercial interests of other countries would take over and control the area. Another reason that this is a very important quotation is that it indicates the anti-Catholic bias in America at the time. Note that the President stated that one objective was to “Christianize” them. However, Spain had been in the islands for over 300 years and most Filipinos were already Roman Catholic. However, Roman Catholics were then a much smaller proportion of the American population and many Protestants didn’t think Catholicism was a legitimate Christian Religion. When the majority of Americans thought of Christianizing other people, they thought of Protestant missionaries much like England. At the time there was very little criticism of the President for the “error” of stating that Filipinos should be Christianized when they were so already Spanish Colonial Policy and Practice was generally terrible and particularly so in the Philippines, See {629450}.
FDR had agreed to send destroyers to help Churchill but to placate Congress he wanted a formal agreement for Britain to lease bases to the United States. Roosevelt wanted the Prime Minister to work out a Lend Lease agreement with the Attorney General. Jackson’s reply was “But Republics do!”
The eventual demise of the French Colonial Empire was predicted by almost all scholars and statesmen except the French. It would be after the Second World War when the French were proved to have been delusional on this point.
This quotation is an excellent example of the early, militant Gandhi. It is typical of militant theocracies of the Islamic world today.
