Blizzard sweeps New England
Traffic paralyzed – thousands marooned
…
Crowley rips Lend-Lease rumors
…
Adm. Thomas Hart named Connecticut Senator
Navy officer to fill unexpired term
…
Relatives to hear from internees
WASHINGTON (UP) – The Red Cross said today that 3,500 letters from civilian internees liberated at Santo Tomas, Bilibid and Santiago in the Philippines will reach relatives in the United States soon.
Red Cross workers delivered 4,400 messages from home to 2,708 Americans at Santo Tomas and an unestimated number to internees at Bilibid and Santiago. These messages were collected by Red Cross chapters in this country shortly after the invasion of Leyte last fall.
The Red Cross said comfort articles such as soap, toothbrushes and razors had been distributed to 3,677 internees at Santo Tomas. Fifteen Red Cross women workers from Leyte and Dutch New Guinea have received priorities to fly to Manila to aid in caring for the released internees and homeless Philippine civilians.
Japs destroy large section of Manila
Flames unchecked for six days
By Ralph Teatsorth, United Press staff writer
MANILA, Philippines – Fire and battle have disfigured Manila horribly in the past week and vast areas in the ancient city lie in blackened ruins today.
By the time the last Japs have been killed here, many parts of the center of the city and the port area will be unrecognizable and will have to be rebuilt entirely.
Huge fires set by gunfire and Jap demolition crews have been raging unchecked for six days and nights, casting a great pall of smoke and flames over the city that can be seen for miles.
Life is beginning to return to normal in the liberated northern half of the capital, but the booming of artillery and the occasional rattle of machine-gun fire are constant reminders that the war is still only a few hundred yards away.
Views destruction
I viewed the center of the city yesterday from the top of Bilibid Prison and the Malacanang Palace. Both were still under artillery and mortar fire, but had suffered only slight damage.
The greatest visible damage appears to have occurred in the main business district on the north bank of the Pasig River. Fires have leveled most of that area, including the Philippines National Bank, the National City Bank, the Jap and Philippine bazaars and the big department stores.
The Binondo, San Nicolas and Santa Cruz areas extending more than a mile inland from the harbor on the north side of the river also have been burned out. The Great Eastern, Marco Polo and Central Hotels and the Santa Cruz Church are among the familiar buildings destroyed in those sections.
Church blown up
The fire line ran roughly between the river and Azcarrage Street as far east as Bilibid Prison, but a section of the city between Bilibid and the railroad terminal also was burned to the ground. Wednesday night an entire city block just south of Santo Tomas University caught fire and was destroyed.
The fine San Sebastian Cathedral, whose towering steel spire was fabricated in Liege, Belgium, is still undamaged, but a church in the Binondo district, which the Japs used as an ammunition dump, has been blown sky high.
The Yaunco market district, where American tourists used to buy Philippine rugs, and the San Nicolas warehouse area both were burned.
Port area blasted
Air Force observers report that most of the port area south of the Pasig River has been destroyed by Jap demolitions, which began on January 6, as well as by American shellfire.
Manila’s famous Army and Navy Club and the high commissioner’s building, both south of the port area, are believed to be intact but the Yacht Club in which the Japs had emplaced artillery has been wrecked.
Many Jap bodies and smashed vehicles still litter Quezon Boulevard, and many more are being piled up in the Pandacan District, where the oil companies were located before the war. Bitter fighting is going on there today.
600,000 Japs isolated by U.S. advances
Many of garrisons well equipped
…
B-29s hit Kobe 6th straight day
…
Compulsory training law urged now by 14 educators
Bowman among college heads asking Roosevelt for action before war ends
…
Spy feared ‘boss,’ witness testifies
…
Adviser to Chiang freed from Japs
LONDON, England (UP) – The British radio reported today that W. H. Donald, famous adviser to Gen. Chiang Kai-shek, had been released from internment in Manila.
The report said Mr. Donald was captured by the Japs when they overran the Philippines but they never learned his identity.
Mr. Donald, an Australian, was known by Allied authorities to be a prisoner but the fact was kept secret because it was feared the Japs would execute him if they discovered his identity.
Allies have full power over Italy under Stern terms, Grew admits
Marcantonio questions statement that armistice didn’t decide territorial changes
…
Dewey demands hard bargain be made between U.S. and Russia
Governor endorses Vandenberg’s program and attacks Roosevelt’s policies
By Lyle C. Wilson, United Press staff writer
…
Dewey assails Wallace idea of economics
‘Spending to chaos bankruptcy’ derided
By Charles T. Lucey, Scripps-Howard staff writer
…