The
Commission will therefore report to the Secretary of War, and all their
action will be subject to your approval and control.
You will instruct the Commission to proceed to the city of Manila,
where they will make their principal office, and to communicate with
the Military Governor of the Philippine Islands, whom you will at the
same time direct to render to them every assistance within his power
in the performance of their duties. Without hampering them by too
specific instructions, they should in general be enjoined, after making
themselves familiar with the conditions and needs of the country, to
devote their attention in the first instance to the establishment of
municipal governments, in which the natives of the islands, both in the
cities and in the rural communities, shall be afforded the opportunity
to manage their own local affairs to the fullest extent of which they
are capable and subject to the least degree of supervision and control
which a careful study of their capacities and observation of the
workings of native control show to be consistent with the maintenance
of law, order, and loyalty.
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