Mrs. Menzi is back home and so are the Graemiger, Garriz and Duran families, but the Camposes have to repair their house before moving in. The Kaufmann house is still occupied although the tenant said he would leave tomorrow.

The Japanese had taken Margot's two-seat rig, a plaything really, and Mrs. Menzi's dokar as well as their cars. Since they were short of horses, the Japanese, through Figueras, had the Menzis take the dokar and rig back. No sooner had the Menzis noticed that an old harness had been substituted for their new one than they were tipped-off as to its location. Bill Anderson had it! Anderson is palsy-walsy with the MPs you see, and he's been on a rampage for a while now — Bausa's woollen clothes, the Menzi's harness, reins, tires and carburetors of cars left behind, etc. At least the Menzis got their harness back.

That same midnight, the MPs came for the Menzi and Klingler dokars, ignoring Margot's little rig. They must have got the horses from somewhere, but they couldn't put the harnesses on. So off they went looking for Graemiger's cochero, but he wasn't sleeping there that night. Running out of options, the Japanese unceremoniously yanked Bessmer out of bed and insisted that he put the harnesses on. The Japanese obviously hadn't a clue on how to do it, but neither did Bessmer! And the Japanese were insistent, threatening almost. So in the pitch darkness of 0030, the only representative of the International Red Cross, still in his pyjamas, did the best he could. He's still wondering how it worked out.

Well, the Klingler dokar soon reappeared in the possession of Figueras of all people, who was using it to transport rice. When the Klinglers heard of it they went over and claimed it back. Figueras wasn't there; his wife surrendered it easily enough. These are just some of the strange happenings these days.

Food is the biggest problem today. George Sotelo bought a large 9-tube, un-reconditioned radio in a beautiful cabinet with a 15-inch loudspeaker for 10 kilos of beans. The radio is worth a fortune, but you can't eat it. These days, a family of five could scarcely feed themselves on P1,500 a day. Many who thought they had ample reserves of food and money have found themselves short of both. The only thing left to do is to sell something, but buyers are scarce.

MacArthur's communiqué said a counterattack was beaten back and 24 Japanese tanks were destroyed. From another source comes an unconfirmed story that the Americans discovered a cache of partly assembled Japanese planes — new ones. Bombs promptly disassembled them.

Apparently the Lingayen airfield has been in use for a week now, which surprises a few here because of the contrary propaganda. B-24s from there have started reconnoitering over Formosa. I counted about 47 that had flown in from the north. Meanwhile, this month alone, the count of large and small ships sunk by the Nimitz Task Forces easily passed the 250 mark.