In my report as secretary of the interior for the fiscal year ended June 30, 1911, I again took up this subject. After this report had been submitted to the commission I myself cut out all mention of slavery at the request of Governor-General Forbes, who urged that we make a last effort to get the assembly to act before appealing to Congress. In spite of the desirability of having uniform legislation on such a matter as this in adjacent provinces, the commission felt that it could no longer with propriety delay action for the territory under its exclusive jurisdiction, and on August 7, 1911, passed the bill for Agusan, Nueva Vizcaya and the Mountain Province. The same act was again passed by the commission for the territory under the jurisdiction of the legislature, when that body reconvened. The assembly referred it to committee on October 27, 1911, and tabled it without discussion on February 1, 1912. In my annual report for 1912 I included the following recommendation:-- "That for the adequate protection of the non-Christian tribes a final and earnest effort be made to secure the concurrence of the Philippine Assembly in the passage for the territory under the jurisdiction of the Philippine Legislature of an Act identical with, or similar to, Act No. 2071, entitled 'An Act prohibiting slavery, involuntary servitude, peonage, and the sale or purchase of human beings in the Mountain Province and the Provinces of Nueva Vizcaya and Agusan, and providing punishment therefor,' and that in the event of failure, the attention of Congress be called to this important matter to the end that it may pass adequate legislation if it deems such a course in the public interest." This time I sent the copy for the report to the printer without awaiting further possible requests or orders to remain silent, for I was thoroughly convinced that it was useless to expect action from the assembly and that nothing remained but to appeal to congress to pass suppletory legislation making effective the provision of the Act of July 1, 1902, prohibiting slavery and involuntary servitude in the Philippine Islands. At the next session of the legislature the commission again passed the bill. The assembly referred it to committee on October 26, and tabled it without discussion on January 8, 1913. From the above record it will be plain that, beginning in 1909, the commission passed laws prohibiting and penalizing slavery and peonage annually during four successive years, and that the assembly tabled each of the four measures without deigning to give any of them one moment's discussion. Much less have they ever asked for any information as to the necessity for such legislation. While no member of the assembly had ever made any official statement on the subject, the Filipino press had on various occasions denounced me as a liar or an ignoramus, and an enemy of "the Filipino people," for saying that slavery existed.