PHILIPPINES: Continuing his letters home, Harvey Phillips, touring the world on the British freighter S.S. City of Bedford, wrote to his mother in Bradford from Iloilo, Philippines, in a letter dated Feb. 3. It was shared in The Era April 17, 1926.

The freighter was anchored in Iloilo harbor at the island of Panay, taking on a thousand tons of sugar before heading to Cebu for more. It was raining, so Harvey stayed on board to write letters.

“Imagine our surprise to find that instead of one or two days at Manila as we had expected, we were to have the entire weekend of four days. That seemed too good to be true, but as you shall see it was only the beginning of our luck. As soon as we could get ashore we went up to the Escolta, or main drag. To describe all we did in those four days would take pages so I shall give you just an outline. Buck took us to the Polo Club to swim, and went around with us to see the old churches, the moat, the old walls and other places of interest. One afternoon there was a large military parade to open the Carnival. Gov. Leonard Wood reviewed it.

“On Sunday we were the guests of friends for dinner at the hotel, and in the afternoon we invited them to go with us for a drive in the country behind Manila. We went through one native village after another; the houses are built on bamboo poles several feet above the ground, the roofs are thatched, and the walls made from reeds or cane. On the whole the Filipinos are far cleaner than the Japanese or Chinese.”

More to come.