Despite a front tire about to blow, I returned yesterday from Pennsylvania via Ermita and headed towards the Walled City, where a mustachioed MP unceremoniously ordered me out. But what ruins did I see! You'll see it all in pictures some day so I won't go into too much detail. The point is it's more than 40 days, yet Ermita, Malate and especially the Walled City are still NO MAN'S LAND. Ermita still reeks of death, and I imagine the Walled City smells even worse. I got a sense of the magnitude of the task ahead. The bodies must first be buried or burned then the areas disinfected before cleaning up and demolition of unstable structures can begin. The place wasn't leveled to the ground as some reported. The spires of three churches stand surrounded by battered, burned skeletons of structure.

The Agriculture Building takes the first prize — I gasped when I first saw it. The Finance Building and City Hall take second and third prize. These three are outside the Walled City, where it's even worse. Well, it's probably a blessing that Fort Santiago is no more. Conceived as a Fort in 1570, it ended up as a dungeon of torture. The 300-year-old Santa Clara Convent is another treasure lost to mankind. Priceless relics have gone with the Walled City indeed.

. . . .

Saw Hans Menzi; now a Major-USA GHQ and soon to become a Lt. Colonel with a recommendation for full Colonel. He talked a mouthful. He's sore that Graemiger refused to give him Menzi & Co. paper for the guerrillas. "Had to knock the bodegeros on the head to get it." In fact, he's sore at the Swiss in general, perhaps for derogatory statements to his advancement or deeds. He's sore at the CIC too because of its "weak-kneed" principle that everyone is probably not guilty and forgetting there's a war on. He was responsible for putting Carmen Planas in Bilibid. Yes, he's particularly sore with those who were pro-Japanese. Pointing to Peyer's 1942 DeSoto, he said: "Did you notice that the 'USA' on the windshield is off? I told him to take it off — he's not with the Army or even the Red Cross."

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