From Biñan to Pasay, the Japanese have taken many horses from stables and carromata owners, paying only P40 per animal. To understand the tragedy of this act, one has to count the number of cocheros who make a living driving carromatas and carretelas. For the most part, they are poor and hardworking individuals with no savings and no other trade; often owning just one animal and thus working only half a day, as horses should be worked. Past attempts to restrict this kind of transportation failed because of hardship on the cocheros and their clients. Now their livelihood is gone. (Lolita tells me that weeping could be heard from many nipa shacks on the outskirts of Manila.) What do the Japanese need the horses for? To carry ammunition through the mountain tracks of Bataan or to load them with time bombs and send them on a stampede toward USAFFE lines!

Lolita's brother was stopped on his way home yesterday carrying nine sacks of flour, which the Japanese confiscated without payment. Several poor families had pooled their funds to buy the sacks at P5 each. It was a loss they could hardly afford.

From Tony Morales comes a tale of a man who was beaten and repeatedly tied up and dipped in an estero [estuary] after being encouraged to run away a number of times. Tony was physically upset after witnessing the spectacle. You can imagine how Filipinos feel about the above incidents, but according to the latest propaganda effort (a dispatch from Saigon), our anger lies elsewhere: "Filipino Revolt Against U.S. Feared."

Indicating a rising resentment amongst Filipinos against the brutal American methods in forcing them to fight, General Douglas MacArthur, in reports to Washington, expressed fears of Filipino uprising against the United States Forces, according to a San Francisco radio report intercepted here.

A doctor just back from San Fernando told Paul Meyer that the entire town has been practically turned into a Japanese hospital. Meanwhile, travelers just arrived from our southern islands told Pacifico Ledesma that Filipinos and Americans have been busily building airfields there capable of taking American bombers — 3,000 hectares all told! Now if they'd only send some planes.

La Vanguardia reported the fall of Rangoon and a Japanese landing in New Guinea. Australia is just a step away; undefended as their troops are away fighting the Germans.