FLASH! LAUREL ASSASSINATED — or was he? At 1230 today, Maurice told me Laurel was dead — shot while playing golf. Downtown this afternoon, I heard all sorts of things: He was dead — he wasn't; he was hit three, four, five times; five bullets were fired at him — no, it was six. Schaer gave me the first lowdown. Pio Duran's partner told him Laurel was hit three times but is still alive. La Vanguardia confirmed that he was hit twice on the left shoulder and once on the right, and he's now at the Philippine General Hospital. It happened at 0600 while playing golf with Madrigal, Aurelio Montinola, and a Military Colonel. The paper says no one saw the assailant.

I've been conducting an informal poll on whether members of the Executive Commission are pro Japanese. Here are the unofficial results and my opinion:

So far, Laurel's speeches have been on par with Aquino's. Recto and the rest escape because Aquino and Laurel do the dirty work. Recto's kind of lip service wouldn't satisfy the Japanese, but they will tolerate it as long as two or three people toe the Japanese line completely. So if Laurel dies, someone else will have to take his place. Laurel supposedly said as much to one of his staff. Told that he had been shot, she shook her head slowly and said, "They got the wrong man."