[Congressional Record Volume 145, Number 26 (Friday, February 12, 1999)]
[Senate]
[Pages S1641-S1643]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                        CORRECTION TO THE RECORD

  In the Record of February 10, 1999, on page S1425-1427, the remarks 
of Senator Thomas appear incorrectly. The permanent Record will be 
corrected to reflect the following:
                                 ______
                                 
      By Mr. THOMAS (for himself, Mr. Enzi, Mr. Helms, Mr. Murkowski, 
        Mr. Coverdell, Mr. Hagel, Mr. Smith of Oregon, Mr. Smith of New 
        Hampshire, Mr. Roberts, Mr. Nickles, and Mr. Sessions):
  S. 404. A bill to prohibit the return of veterans memorial objects to 
foreign nations without specific authorization in law; to the Committee 
on Veterans' Affairs.


      s. 404: the veterans memorial physical integrity act of 1999

  Mr. THOMAS. Mr. President, I come to the floor today to 
introduce S. 404, a bill to prohibit the return to a foreign country of 
any portion of a memorial to American veterans without the express 
authorization of Congress. The bill is identical to S. 1903 which I 
introduced at the end of the last Congress.
  I would not have thought that a bill like this was necessary, Mr. 
President. It would never have occurred to me that an Administration 
would even briefly consider dismantling part of a memorial to American 
soldiers who died in the line of duty in order to send a piece of that 
memorial to a foreign country; but a real possibility of just that 
happening exists in my state of Wyoming involving what are known as the 
``Bells of Balangiga.''
  In 1898, the Treaty of Paris brought to a close the Spanish-American 
War. As part of the treaty, Spain ceded possession of the Philippines 
to the United States. At about the same time, the Filipino people began 
an insurrection in their country. In August 1901, as part of the 
American effort to stem the insurrection, a company of 74 officers and 
men from the 9th Infantry, Company G, occupied the town of Balangiga on 
the island of Samar. These men came from Ft. Russell in Cheyenne, 
Wyoming--today's F.E. Warren Air Force Base.
  On September 28 of that year, taking advantage of the preoccupation 
of the American troops with a church service for the just-assassinated 
President McKinley, a group of Filipino insurgents infiltrated the 
town. Only three American sentries were on duty that day. As described 
in an article in the November 19, 1997 edition of the Wall Street 
Journal:

       Officers slept in, and enlisted men didn't bother to carry 
     their rifes as they ambled out of their quarters for 
     breakfast. Balangiga had been a boringly peaceful site since 
     the infantry company arrived a month earlier, according to 
     military accounts and soldiers' statements. The quiet ended 
     abrupty when a 23 year old U.S. sentry named Adolph Gamlin 
     walked past the local police chief. In one swift move, the 
     Filipino grabbed the slightly built Iowan's rifle and smashed 
     the butt across [Gamlin's] head. As PFC Gamlin crumpled, the 
     bells of Balangiga began to peal.
       With the signal, hundreds of Filipino fighters swarmed out 
     of the surrounding forest, armed with clubs, picks and 
     machete-like bolo knives. Others poured out of the church; 
     they had arrived the night before, disguised as women 
     mourners and carrying coffins filled with bolos. A sergeant 
     was beheaded in the mess tent and dumped into a vat of 
     steaming wash water. A young bugler was cut down in a nearby 
     stream. The company commander was hacked to death after 
     jumping out a window. Besieged infantrymen defended 
     themselves with kitchen forks, mess kits and baseball bats. 
     Others threw rocks and cans of beans.
       Though he was also slashed across the back, PFC . . . 
     Gamlin came to and found a rifle. By the time he and the 
     other survivors fought their way to the beach, 38 US soldiers 
     were dead and all but six of the remaining men had been 
     wounded.


[[Page S1642]]


  The remaining soldiers escaped in five dug-out canoes. Only three 
boats made it to safety on Leyte. Seven men died of exposure at sea, 
and another eight died of their wounds; only 20 of the company's 74 
members survived.
  A detachment of 54 volunteers from 9th infantry units stationed at 
Leyte returned to Balangiga and recaptured the village. They were 
reinforced a few days later from Companies K and L of the 11th Infantry 
Regiment. When the 11th Infantry was relieved on October 18, by 
Marines, the 9th Infantry took two of the church bells and an old 
cannon with them back to Wyoming as memorials to the fallen soldiers.
  The bells and cannon have been displayed in front of the base 
flagpole on the central parade grounds since that time. The cannon was 
restored by local volunteers and placed under a glass display case in 
1985 to protect it from the elements. The bells were placed in openings 
in a large specially constructed masonry wall with a plaque dedicating 
the memorial to the memory of the fallen soldiers.
  Off and on since 1981, there have been some discussions in various 
circles in Cheyenne, Washington, and Manila about the future of the 
bells, including the possibility of returning them to the Philippines. 
Most recently, the Philippine government--having run into broad 
opposition to their request to have both bells returned to them--has 
proposed making a copy of both bells, and having both sides keep one 
copy and one original. Opposition to the proposal from local and 
national civic and veterans groups has been very strong.
  Last year, developments indicated to me that the White House was 
seriously contemplating returning one or both of the bells to the 
Philippines. 1998 marked the 100th anniversary of the Treaty of Paris, 
and a state visit by then-President Fidel Ramos--his last as 
President--to the United States. The disposition of the bells was high 
on President Ramos' agenda; he has spoken personally to President 
Clinton and several members of Congress about it over the last three 
years, and made it one of only three agenda items the Filipino 
delegation brought to the table. Since January 1998, the Filipino press 
has included almost weekly articles on the bells' supposed return, 
including several in the Manila Times in April and May which reported 
that a new tower to house the bells was being constructed in Borongon, 
Samar, to receive them in May. In addition, there have been a variety 
of reports vilifying me and the veterans in Wyoming for our position on 
the issue, and others threatening economic boycotts of US products or 
other unspecified acts of retaliation to force capitulation on the 
issue.
  Moreover, inquiries to me from various agencies of the Administration 
soliciting the opinion of the Wyoming congressional delegation on the 
issue increased in frequency in the first four months of 1998. I also 
learned that the Defense Department, perhaps in conjunction with the 
Justice Department, prepared a legal memorandum outlining its opinion 
of who actually controls the disposition of the bells.
  In response, the Wyoming congressional delegation wrote a letter to 
President Clinton on January 9, 1998, to make clear our opposition to 
removing the bells. In response to that letter, on May 26 I received a 
letter from Sandy Berger of the National Security Council which I think 
is perhaps one of the best indicators of the direction the White House 
was headed on this issue.

  To head off any move by the Administration to dispose of the bells, I 
and Senator Enzi introduced S. 1903 on April 1. The bill had 18 
cosponsors, including the distinguished Chairmen of the Committees on 
Armed Services, Foreign Relations, Finance, Energy and Natural 
Resources, Rules, Ethics, and Banking; the Chairmen of five 
Subcommittees of the Foreign Relations Committee; and five members of 
the Armed Services Committee.
  Mr. President, at this point let me dispose of a canard that was 
forwarded shortly after the time I introduced S. 1903 by those seeking 
the return of the bells. They asserted that the bill was actually in 
contravention of the wishes of the people of the State of Wyoming 
because the Wyoming Legislature, quoting a letter from the Ambassador 
of the Philippines dated April 3, 1998, ``supports the sharing of the 
bells.'' That statement, however, glosses over the real facts.
  Wyoming's legislature is not a ``professional'' one--that is, the 
legislators have other, full-time jobs and the Legislature only sits 
for forty days at the beginning of each year and twenty days in the 
fall. When the Legislature meets, it is often to process an entire 
year's worth of legislation in just a few weeks.
  Like Congress, the Wyoming Legislature has a formal process of 
introducing, considering, and then voting on bills which become law 
upon the signature of the chief executive--in this case the governor. 
Also like Congress, the Legislature has a system for expressing its 
non-binding viewpoint on certain issues through resolutions. But unlike 
Congress, the Legislature also has an informal resolution process to 
express the viewpoint of only a given number of legislators, as opposed 
to the entire legislative body, on a given topic; the vehicle for such 
a process is called a ``joint resolution.''
  In this process, a legislator circulates the equivalent of a petition 
among his or her colleagues. Support for the subject matter is 
signified simply by signing one's name to the petition. Once the 
sponsor has acquired all the signatures he or she can--or wishes to--
acquire, the joint resolution is simply deposited for the record with 
the Office of the Governor; it is never--I repeat never--voted on in 
either House of the Legislature, nor is it signed by the governor. As a 
consequence, it is not considered to be the position of, or the 
expression of the will of, the Legislature as a whole, but only of 
those legislators who signed it.
  Although the bells are an issue of interest among some circles state-
wide, the issue is not well-known all over Wyoming. I have heard from 
several of the signatories of the joint resolution on the bells that 
they were not aware of the circumstances surrounding the bells at the 
time they signed the joint resolution. In this regard, it is important 
to note that the sponsor of the joint resolution did not enlighten them 
about the role of the bells in the unprovoked killing of 54 American 
soldiers in Balangiga before they signed the document. Moreover, that 
fact was completely and purposefully left out of the wording of the 
joint resolution itself; the death of these American soldiers was 
completely glossed over. The closest the joint resolution gets to 
mentioning the surprise attack and resulting deaths is this, which I 
quote verbatim:

       Whereas, at a point in the relationship, nearly one hundred 
     (100) years ago following the Spanish-American War, armed 
     conflict occurred between the United States and the 
     Philippines; and
       Whereas, a particularly noteworthy incident occurred on the 
     island of Samar in 1901 during the course of that conflict; 
     and
       Whereas, that incident involved the ringing of the Church 
     Bells of Balangiga on Samar to signal the outbreak of 
     fighting.

  Imagine. The author of the joint resolution reduced the surprise 
attack and horrible deaths of fifty-four soldiers to a seemingly 
innocent, benign ``noteworthy incident.'' So while some may rely on the 
joint resolution as though it were the ``voice of Wyoming'' in support 
of their position, an examination of the actual facts surrounding it 
proves that reliance to be very misplaced.
  While time has passed since this issue came to a head last April, Mr. 
President, my deep concern that the Administration might still dispose 
of the bells has not. The Administration has not disavowed its earlier 
intent to seek to return the bells--an intent derailed by the 
introduction of S. 1903 last year. In addition, despite Article IV, 
section 3, clause 2 of the Constitution, which states that the 
``Congress shall have the power to dispose of . . . Property belonging 
to the United States,'' the Justice Department has issued an informal 
memorandum stating that the Bells could possibly be disposed of by the 
President pursuant to the provisions of 10 U.S.C. Sec. 2572.
  I continue to be amazed, even in these days of political correctness 
and revisionist history, that a U.S. President--our Commander-in-
Chief--would appear to be ready to ignore the wishes of our veterans 
and tear down a memorial to U.S. soldiers who died in the line of duty 
in order to send part of it back to the country in which they were 
killed. Amazed, that is, until I recall this President's fondness for 
sweeping apologies and what some might view as

[[Page S1643]]

flashy P.R. gestures. Consequently, Senator Enzi and I have decided to 
reintroduce the bill in the 106th Congress.
  Mr. President, to the veterans of Wyoming, and the United States as a 
whole, the bells represent a lasting memorial to those fifty-four 
American soldiers killed as a result of an unprovoked insurgent attack 
in Balangiga on September 28, 1901. In their view, which I share, any 
attempt to remove either or both of the bells--and in doing so actually 
physically dismantling a war memorial--is a desecration of that memory.
  S. 404 will protect the bells and similar veterans memorials from 
such an ignoble fate. The bill is quite simple; it prohibits the 
transfer of a veterans memorial or any portion thereof to a foreign 
country or government unless specifically authorized by law; 
Representative Barbara Cubin is introducing similar legislation this 
week in the House. I am pleased to be joined by Senators Enzi, Helms, 
Hagel, Smith of Oregon, Murkowski, Smith of New Hampshire, Roberts, 
Sessions, Nickles, and Coverdell as original cosponsors. I trust that 
my colleagues will support its swift passage.

                          ____________________