"100 Rice Warehouses Sealed.... Biba will take possession of all rice in excess of authorized quantities." Let's wait and see. "First community kitchens open today" — 57 of them.

A magazine called City Gazette is out containing speeches by Laurel. His January 4 speech blamed all of Naric's irregularities on the Japanese. (Japanese Naric officials are still in Fort Santiago.) Laurel told the Japanese that one of the minimum prerequisites to an independent Philippines with him at its head was that the Japanese allow him to feed his countrymen without obstruction. One wonders what he's saying to Saito et al nowadays; he can't be keeping quiet. La Vanguardia: "Laurel promises full effort to impede hunger" — his second large promise.

The shortage of coal here is so great that the Taiwan Gas Company, against the advice of the Swiss engineers, began to put out an inferior grade of gas containing only 2,300 calories instead of the prewar 4,500. Now some burners can't sustain a flame on all jets, and gas refrigerators have stopped working — leading to much spoilage of stored meat.