Tribune: "Army Loans Rice to P.I." — so much for the Christmas spirit. From their "imported" stocks, the Japanese released 20,000 sacks on "the personal request of the President." Said Laurel: "If you go hungry, we will all go hungry." As usual the Japanese think they merit a splashy editorial.

La Vanguardia: "Japan makes another gift to the country" — one million yards of textiles — "part of the gifts for the proclamation of independence." Ten Japanese trucks paraded slowly downtown bearing placards saying: "Cotton Goods just arrived from Nippon." The stuff could have been piled into four trucks. The article said 877 bales; I counted less than 200.

On the radio William Winters tried to cheer us up but only succeeded in tripling our gloom. He was twice as pessimistic as the average Filipino.

Churches were jammed with people celebrating midnight mass. Our pastor gave a daring speech implying we were under a heavy yoke awaiting redemption as the world did before Christ. If he had gone any further the crowd would have cheered and stamped on the floor.