The paper claims Singapore has fallen. The Japanese celebrated it by having one car with a huge “Asia for Asiatics” banner trumpet the news through loudspeakers. At 2130 KGEI said Singapore was determined to keep on fighting to the end. Back here, the Japanese are assembling a grand array of barges and launches, even plucking some from watery graves.

A source from Bulacan, where most of our rice comes from, said a shortage could develop if the Japanese don’t release some of their tremendous stocks of rice. The Japanese imposed quotas on barrios and districts à la Ukraine. A town that barely produces 5,800 cavans of rice and got a quota for 6,000 is negotiating to have it reduced to 5,000, at which level they still wouldn’t be able to ship a sack to Manila. And even if they could, he warned, many of the temporary bridges wouldn’t survive the next rainy season.