Reading Eagle (February 17, 1941)
ARMY FAMILIES SAIL FROM PHILIPPINES
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67 women and children leave on transport
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Manila, Feb. 17 (AP) –
67 wives and children of American Army officers sailed for home today on the transport Etolin.
Although many of them left on short notice after a Far Eastern war scare swept the Philippines last week, Army authorities insisted no evacuation order had been issued.
Other Army wives and children were scheduled to sail on the transport U.S. Grant for the United States later this month and the transport Republic in April.
Masny disappointed officers, who had expected to sail with their wives today on routine transfer to other ports, stood on the pier and waved goodbye. They had been ordered to remain on duty in the Philippines indefinitely.
No official explanation was forthcoming for the sudden cancellation of their transfers. Other circles reported the officers were needed to train more than 5,000 Filipino soldiers added to the United States Army’s Philippine Scouts under authorization of President Roosevelt.
There was no sign in Manila of a renewal of war fears, but in San Francisco, Pampanga Province, Pedro Abad Santos, head of the Philippines Socialist Party, told 2,000 followers that the islands “are threatened by imminent involvement in the imperialist war now going on.”
The workers and peasants will soon be told to be ready to give their lives for the defense of the nation when, in fact, they will be led to slaughter at the altar of American imperialism in its deadly conflict with Japanese imperialism for trade and markets.
Pampanga Province is the Socialist Party center of the Philippines and has been the scene of much agrarian unrest in recent years.