Tydings left suddenly after only six days here, canceling visits planned to Iloilo and Corregidor. Says he has all the information he needs right in Washington. His premature departure set tongues in town wagging in worry.

Carlos Fernandez reports that Bill Ellis is in Japan. He was a POW in Bilibid with Lee Stevens and my brother Joe. First such ray of hope in a long time that Joe could be all right.

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Machiavellian politics according to the New York Daily News: Two solutions for the Philippines: Either accept status as the 49th State of the Union, or Independence, "in which case the U.S. would not consent to remain obligated in any way to go rushing to their defense again." Well, they didn't come rushing in to our defense in the first place, and our liberation was not an entirely unselfish endeavor as more Filipino than American blood was spilled. And what about the promises made by Roosevelt?

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