Tribune: "Constitution shows worth in Emergency, President asserts" — an inspired speech asserting the Constitution saved the country from going to war. "The struggle is not yet at an end; indeed, every new day has its fresh ordeal and the supreme test is yet to be." Of course, what Laurel couldn't say was just WHO is doing us ill.

"Mayor outlines norm of conduct during raids" in a "manifesto" to the people here. He warns us about the coming bombings and offers some helpful suggestions. Stock up on food? The poor don't even have enough for their next meal. Dig wells and air raid shelters? And turn them over to the Japanese along with our fruit and vegetable gardens when they take our houses over? Evacuate to the provinces? Where-to and how? Yesterday, Guinto told a group of N.A. presidents that concussion bombs at Davao gave people nosebleeds two kilometers away from the explosion. Who told him that? The Japanese did, to encourage people to evacuate the city.

Editorial: "A Lesson in Air Defense" — a similar warning full of inaccuracies and falsehoods. Excerpts: "There is nothing to fear if the population is fully prepared defensively with bomb shelters, fox-holes, strict blackout and other measures." Most of the bombs have been small concussion bombs that "throw shrapnel horizontally in all directions close to the ground" ... to create a "heavy toll among the population." Actually, they are dropped to blanket the airfields and knock out the Japanese planes that, unlike human beings, can't lie prone in the foxholes! But this much is true: We are relatively safe in Manila. It's the Japanese who, believing their own propaganda, are jittery. Nosebleeds at two kilometers from the airfields my eye!

As for Laurel's praise for his Constitution, a man's castle is not worth anything under this Constitution if it's caught in a military reservation trap, as those who recently appealed to him en masse found out. The idiotic thing is that it costs a lot to move and rent a new house, assuming you can find one at all. Then presto! You have to move again. For the Feltmans, this will be their fourth time!

Sign of the times: "Sale of diaper cloth suspended."