Pershing and the Disarmament of the Moros

Abstract

The Moro Province, Pershing's new command, was in the southern Philippines. It embraced roughly the islands of Mindanao and Jolo, and was populated largely by the fiercely contentious Moros, so called by the Spaniards because they were Mohammedans. The Moro Province was not new to Pershing. He had been stationed there from 1899 to 1903, first at Zamboanga, then at Iligan, and last at Camp Vicars, a military post overlooking Lake Lanao in central Mindanao.' His work among the Moros had been remarkable (he had been the first American to penetrate, alone and unarmed, the hidden fastness of the Lake Lanao country), and superiors noted that he seemed to have a way with these strange, savage people whom others found so difficult to cope with. Pershing's splendid work with the Moros was, in fact, one reason prompting President Theodore Roosevelt to promote him so abruptly to brigadier general in 1906. After his promotion, Pershing let it be known in government circles that he wished to return to the Moro Province as governor. In 1909, his wish was granted. Many changes had occurred during the years that Pershing had been absent. Not all were for the good. Six weeks after assuming command, Pershing wrote to the governor-general of the Philippines, William Cameron Forbes: are many things to be taken up; indeed the Province has recently been allowed to go backward, it seems to me. There is a laxity in the enforcement of law and order.