Tribune: "Over 29,000 Yield Under President's Amnesty Order." The province of Albay led with 10,000.

"Rice ban stays, says F.A. head." A complete fiasco — they can't make up their minds.

Splashes: "Bringing the guerrillas down from the mountains is not enough. We must keep them glad that they came down." Work this out: "Unless we hang together, we'll suffer something worse than being hanged separately."

Candidate for the best story of the war (by Domei): "Two Craft Downed by Rice Cakes." In the fifth air battle off Bougainville, the "fast-thinking crewmen of a Japanese fighter plane single-handedly destroyed two enemy fighters by flinging Japanese rice-cakes at them at the psychological moment." You see, this Japanese plane, out of ammunition, was being hotly pursued, so the "crewmen" flung rice cakes, which the pursuers mistook for grenades. Trying to avoid the unsavory fare, both planes "plunged into the sea." The Japanese plane crashed "upon a hillside" — its crew survived and returned to base with the story — hungry, no doubt.

Helen Moreno waved at a truckload of American POWs passing by the Boulevard. The Japanese driver slammed on the brakes, got down and slapped her 25 times, according to eyewitnesses. She remembers only the first six slaps, after which she passed out. Friends took her to a hospital — her whole face was swollen and bleeding.

What's News? Argentina broke off relations with the Axis. Thank God we won't have to smell those Buenos Aires dispatches any longer. Stimson announced 463 Japanese planes plus 109 probables were shot down in the South Pacific from January 1 to January 27. The Allies lost 88. No wonder the Japanese have to lie in a big way. A couple of days ago, they summarized their victories as 520 enemy downed against 35 own lost. That's 15:1 against U.S. claims of 6:1 — so who's lying?

I understand the Japanese have approved stock transactions except with belligerents. January's going to be my best month — three transactions in a row.