Phenology
the study of the periodic phenomena of plant and animal life in relation to weather and climate. Phenological observations have been carried on in European countries for a number of years, but the study has received little systematic attention in the United States until very recently, when some highly important results have been achieved, giving promise to further work in this field. (See BIOCLIMATIC LAW, CRITICAL PERIOD OF CROPS, INDEX PLANTS.) PHILIPPINE ISLANDS.
Wood-Forbes Report. - The last message of President Wilson to Congress, Dec. 7, 1920, recommended the granting of independence to the Philippine island ers on the ground that they had fulfilled the conditions required. For the purpose of obtaining evidence in the matter, President Harding in March, 1921, requested Major-General Wood and W. Cameron Forbes, ex-Governor-General of the Philippines, to visit the islands and make a report. After five months' study their report was rendered under date of Oct. 8, 1921. Its general conclusions, made public in November, were that they found the people happy, peaceful, and in the main prosperous and appreciative of the benefits of American rule; the Christian Filipinos almost everywhere desirous of independence, the Americans and non- Christian populations favorable to continued American control. The investigators reported a lack of full understanding of the meaning of independence and the affairs of government, owing principally, as they said, to lack of inspections and a too rapid transfer of control to officials inadequately trained. The lack of success in certain departments of the government was declared to be due not to any inherent incapacity in the Filipinos, but to lack of experience and the inability as yet to do without supervision.
The experience of eight years of practical autonomy under the Wilson administration was declared to have been such as would not justify the withdrawal of American authority for the present, leaving the islands to be a prey to any powerful nation coveting their rich soil and commercial advantages. advantages. The rising generation of Filipinos was declared to be full of promise, but the people as a whole were reported to be economically unorganized and without the means of independent national defence. The report recommended that the existing general status of the islands be continued until the people have had time to absorb and master the powers already in their hands, and that meanwhile the authority of the governor-general be somewhat strengthened.
General Wood Appointed Governor- General. - It was announced on August 11 that General Wood had been tendered the governor-generalship of the islands, a post which he assumed October 15, 1921.
Fortifications and Naval Bases.-Under the Pacific fortifications ag agreement included in the Five-Power Naval Treaty signed at Washington Feb. 6, 1922, no new fortifications or naval bases shall be established in the Philippine Islands; no measures shall be taken to increase existing naval facilities; and no increase shall be made in coast defenses.