DEVASTATED CITY

Evening Post, Volume CXXXIX, Issue 147, 23 June 1945, Page 10

DEVASTATED CITY

VISIT TO MANILA

TERRIBLE CONDITIONS STILL

(R.N.Z.A.F. Official News Service.)

LOS NEGROS, June 18.

, The wholesale devastation; Manila, the desperate state ,||ip|clvic; amenities, and the fantastic ppices^prel; vailingfor food, were among the-iirt^ pressions brought back by Squadron Leader Cecil W. Franks, of Welling;-: ton, who has returned to the Admiralty Islands from a short business visit to the Philippines. Squadron Leader Franks, who is supply representative for the R.N.Z.A.F. in the area, was formerly equipment officer with a New Zealand fighter squadron in Malaya.

Nichols Field, where his aircraft landed, presented a scene at once fascinating arid depressing, said Squadron Leader Franks., The; destruction was appalling. Manila, which was reached after a hair-raising drive through the strangest assortment of traffic, from military vehicles and modern limousines to pony carts and oxen-drawn conveyances, was a more amazing ■ spectacle. "The Japanese demolished nearly all Manila's public buildings and the modern prosperous business community," said the Squadron Leader. "One could gain some idea of the devastation if one imagined all Wellington's public buildings razed to the ground and the whole business area destroyed by fire. The Manila Post Office, previously a beautiful structure with 14 stately columns making it a model of early Roman architecture, was a pitiful sight. The Japs, used it as a bank before putting it to the torch, with picric acid and dynamite." The cemetery, grotesquely, enough, received its full share of plunder* and pillage. The Japanese used it as an ambush during the American army's drive into the city. Before that they had ravaged it for plunder. An ancient Oriental custom demanded that the rich be buried together with rare gifts for the gods. The Japanese excavated many imposing tombs to secure rich prizes of gold and silver. The remains of old caskets were to be seen near the excavations. Most engrossing of all the sights was Intramuros, the ancient and historic walled city, in the heart of Manila, said Squadron Leader Franks. Built by the Spaniards in the 17th. century, its high stone walls, up to 40. feet thick,, surrounded a Vatican City of the East. A city iof churches, universities, and private residences lay behind those ! moated grey walls. Once the main attraction of Manila's pre-war tourist trade, he saw it in complete ruins. This was the scene of the enemy's . last desperate stand.SCREEN OF FILIPINOS. | More than a thousand Filipino civilians, ; interned after the capture of the city by the Japanese, met their death behind the ancient walls. The Japanese, at the point of the bayonet, forced them on to the parapets during the American artillery fire, making the invaders' task a heart-breaking one. When the end became inevitable, the Japanese poured gasoline over the defenceless prisoners and burned them to death. Their charred bodies still lay amid the-desolate ruins of Intramuros. , Discussing conditions within the city Squadron Leader Franks said the position, though desperate, showed signs of some improvement. Water was still the greatest problem. In their frenzied work of. demolition the enemy had connected the city sewers with the main water supply. When he arrived in Manila the enemy still held the Ipo Dam, the city's main source of water, but American forces had since captured it intact. There was no telephone service, and Ino lighting, in the city. It was hoped ! that lighting would be restored by July. An emergency civilian postal service was operating. The main banks had resumed business on a limited scale. , The effect of the war on retailers' prices was startlingly shown by a few figures which Squadron Leader Franks quoted. Buns of very poor quality were on sale for one hundred, centavos (3s 2d). Biscuits with a small jelly centre were 200 centavos (6s 3d). A steak, very rare but procurable, would cost 31s. A pair of sun-glasses, which in New Zealand would cost about Is 6d at a department store, .cost 15s 6d, and an old wrist-., watch of doubtful serviceability had sold for nearly £12. Money >as yet had little real value. Japanese occupation money, peddled by street urchins at surprisingly respectable prices, littered the dusty streets of the capital. The night clubs at Cavite were well patronised by the Americans, and were very costly. At two well-known establishments Filipino liquors were dispensed at the equivalent of 7s 9d a glass. Dusky hostesses followed the crazy evolutions of new dance routines at a dollar, or 6s 3d, a whirl. You could be entertained between times by the prosperous-looking Filipino proprietor relating vivid accounts of Jap atrocities. Considering his three years' privations, however, the proprietor looked surprisingly well.