High Commissioner to the Philippines

The office was created by the Tydings–McDuffie Act of 1934, which provided for a period of transition from direct American rule to the complete independence of the islands on July 4, 1946.

The executive power of the high commissioner was largely ceremonial, and its office is similar to that of an ambassador.

Sayre's tenure was interrupted by the Japanese occupation of the Philippines during World War II.

[3] On January 2, 1942, as Japanese forces entered the city of Manila, four members of the high commissioner's staff, Elise Flahaven, George Gray, Virginia Hewlett and Margaret Pierce, lowered the American flag that flew at the high commissioner's headquarters, burned it and buried its ashes to prevent its capture by the Japanese.

On February 22, 1945, General Douglas MacArthur, supreme commander of the Allied Forces in the Southwest Pacific Area, again raised the flag at the high commissioner's headquarters after recapturing Manila.