Office of the Historian

398. Telegram From the Commander in Chief, Far East (Lemnitzer), to the Department of State1

Tokyo, July 27, 1956—5:40 p.m.

FE 802082. Sent SecState and SecDef info AmEmb Manila PI COMNAVPHIL, Sangley Pt PI and CINCPACFE 802082 exclusive for Robertson at State, Robertson and Gray at Defense, Nufer at AmEmbassy Manila, Switzer and Stump. For [From] Bendetsen.

This afternoon for the first time there was brought to my attention the text of the Tolentino Philippine representative congressional committee’s special report on the 1947 base agreement,2 when I was handed here in Tokyo a clipping from the Philippine Herald published in Manila July 12.

While I may well have failed to do my homework adequately during my relative brief stay in Washington in preparation for departure, [Page 662] the text of this report has not to this moment been either specifically mentioned or made available to me.

I am curious to know whether it was communicated from Manila prior to my departure from Washington and also whether you have had a chance to review it. As COMNAVPHIL is an information addressee of this message, I am asking him by this means to ascertain whether the text has been communicated to you and if not, to transmit it electrically to you as a matter of priority action.

While some of the points this report covers were mentioned during my conferences at Washington, all of them were not. I do not desire to create the impression in your minds that the specific contentions advanced by the report necessarily surprise me, I do emphasize that I am now aware for the first time of the entire content of an official published report on an agency of the Philippine Government which takes a public position that as an integral part of the base negotiations the Philippine representative President [present?]must ask modification of the 1947 agreement. After you have had an opportunity to read the report, if you have not already done so, and after I have had time to reflect upon its significance, I will have comments to make to you from Manila.3

  1. Source: Department of State, Central Files, 711.56396/7–2756. Secret.↩
  2. On April 13, the Philippine House of Representatives passed a resolution authorizing the creation of a special committee to reexamine all official agreements with the United States. The committee, headed by Arturo M. Tolentino, the House Majority Floor Leader, submitted its report on the Military Bases Agreement of 1947 to the Speaker of the House on July 10. In its report, the Tolentino Committee proposed the following revisions of the agreement: (1) obtaining the consent of the Philippine Congress before the bases could be used in wartime; (2) enforcement of Philippine law on the bases; (3) extension of jurisdiction of Philippine courts to all offenses committed against Philippine law, whether on or off base; (4) reaffirmation of the right of the Philippines to exploit all mineral and other natural resources within the bases; (5) confinement of the military reservations to such areas as were absolutely essential for the bases; and (6) reduction of the duration of the agreement from 99 years to 25 years. Ambassador Nufer summarized the Tolentino Committee’s report and related developments in a memorandum to Bendetsen dated July 27. (Ibid., Manila Embassy Files: Lot 76 F 161, 430.3, Military Bases—General)↩
  3. In an exclusive telegram for Bendetsen, July 28, Gordon Gray noted that the text of the Tolentino report had not yet been received by the Departments of Defense or State. “Feeling here,” Gray noted, “on basis press summaries of this report and similar previous committee recommendations, is that several parts may be simple negotiating gambit to be knocked down during negotiations with Philippine panel. State concurs substance foregoing.” (Department of Defense, OASD/ISA Files, FMRA Records, Philippines)↩