Maurice took a bike trip to Cainta on the eastern outskirts of Manila, passing Rosario where he counted five ruined locomotives and the skeletal remains of a hundred railway cars burned by the USAFFE on their retreat.

The stuff burned by the USAFFE adds up to quite a sum: the Pandacan oil facilities, Earnshaw Iron Docks, Atlantic Gulf & Pacific.... MacArthur agreed to compensate AG&P with P6 million for destroying its facilities, though the agreement was erroneously written in dollars according to one of their engineers. The firm did significant work in preparing Bataan and Corregidor defenses.

Although Maurice was a perfect stranger, everyone was hospitable, including the mayor who lounged about his office in bare feet as he discussed the latest VoF broadcasts. One of the locals moaned about his luck. He had turned down good offers to buy his two houses and car last November and December; the houses are now in ashes and the Japanese have his car.

Maurice was returning with some palay [unhusked rice] for his chickens when a racketeering policeman stopped him to seize the palay. Maurice stood his ground, refused the receipt and offered to deliver the palay straight to the Japanese. The bluff worked: "Well, if it's strictly for the chickens," said our racketeer, "you can keep it."