FIRES AT MANILA

Greymouth Evening Star, 8 February 1945, Page 5

FIRES AT MANILA

FLARING UP AGAIN JAPS.’ DESTRUCTIVE EFFORTS NEW YORK, February 7. The fires subsided $ last night but again flared up early to-day, in the South Side, where the trapped enemy troops are still attempting to destroy everything, reports the' Columbia Broadcasting System’s Manila correspondent. Fire destroyed a square mile of the city north of the Pasig River. Some of Manila’s most handsome hotels are blackened skeletons, likewise stately bank buildings and beautiful department stores. Tokio radio to-day declared that American gunfire and incendiarism, perpetrated by Filipino guerrillas, have destroyed the whole of the Manila business centre along Avenita Rizal, north of the Pasig River. In Washington, to-day, Mr. Joseph Grew told a Press conference that General MacArthur had informed the War and State Departments that persons liberated from the Philippines will be permitted to return home as soon as the military situation permits. General MacArthur also advised that he had taken all appropriate welfare measures for all United Nation citizens. , , ~ Mr. Grew also announced that the relief ship, Awamaru is leaving Japan on February 17, under safe conduct, with supplies for the Allied nationals at Formosa, Hong Kong, ■ Saigon, Singapore, Sourabaya, Batavia and Muntok.

RETURN TO MANILA.

GEN. MACARTHUR WELCOMED

(Rec. 10.55 a.m.) NEW YORK, February 7. General MacArthur returned to Manila to-day, the Associated Press Manila correspondent says. While the General was visiting Santo Tomas internment camp the Japanese- bombarded the area. One shell landed 100 feet from General MacArthur. The internees crowded around him and cheered lustily. General MacArthur, with sober face, greeted old friends who mobbed him. Many former captives were so thin that the General found difficulty in recognising them. Women grasped his nand and one nurse kissed him. INTERNEES’ SUFFERINGS. MANILA CAMP CONDITIONS. SYDNEY, February 7. “Only the efforts of the internees themselves, including American service and civilian doctors and nurses, prevented the Santo Tomas internment camp from becoming a veritable ‘death compound.’ This is reported to-day by the “Sydney Morning Herald’s” war correspondent, Jack Percival, who was rescued on Sunday after three years internment at Manila. “Although the Japanese prided themselves on their cleanliness,” writes Percival, “from the sanitation point of view the camp, housing 4000 prisoners, was a major blot on their history.” Percival was a monitor in the camp and had to look alter 500 men. Only one toilet was provided for every 100 men, and one shower and washbasin to every 170. Since the majority of the internees were sufferers from dsyentery and other contagious diseases the problem of preventing their spread was almost insurmountable. All the rooms in the camp were infested with vermin. In spite of harrowing experiences and malnutrition only five Australians died during internment. Four Australian women and one New Zealander gave birth to babies in the camp. The New Zealander was Mrs. Wilfred Atkinson, oi Hawke’s Bay. After the first American air raids on Luzon the Japanese used Santo Tomas camp to store war supplies. Field guns, ammunition, high octane petrol, and crude oil were placed round the camp hospital and the children’s barracks. For months the Japanese did not supply the internees with soap, disinfectant, and cleaning utensils, although supplies were actually in the camp storerooms, nor could the internees make such purchases from the Red Cross funds, although they were obtainable in the city. In the latter stages of internment the Japanese army refused to provide food for the babies and sick, and would not permit into the camp eggs, milk, meat, fruit, and vegetables contributed by neutrals. The camp was first run by the Japanese constabulary, then by commandants from the Japanese Diplomatic Corps, and finally the army took over in February, ’1944. Percival indicts by name numbers of Japanese whom he accuses of being responsible for the conditions in the camp, listing their actions, which contravened the Geneva Convention as well as the humanitarian code. He reports that he saw medical supplies sent from the United States in the exchange ship Gripsholm looted by the Japanese. Thefts of internees’ personal effects were common, Japanese civilians, as ‘well as soldiers, being offenders. A JAPANESE “SATISFACTION” NEW YORK, February 7. The Tokio radio states: “The enemy’s entry into Manila is exactly what'we have waited for. Manila’s military value is almost nil. The Japanese have established fence lines in three districts: (1) in the mountains north-east of Lingayen Gulf; (2) in the vicinity of Clark Field; and (3) on the high ground east of Manila. Japanese naval landing parties are daily inflicting heavy casualties upon the enemy. The bleeding tactics, which are our aim, will now enter a positive stage.” A communique from General MacArthur’s headquarters says: “The 37th Infantry Division and the Ist Cavalry Division continued mopping up operations north of Manna and the 11th Air-borne Division did the same south of Manila. House-to-house fighting is in progress on some sectors, while the trapped and frustrated Japanese garrison has wantonly set fire to the down-town business district along Escolta, practising general sabotage and destruction without relation to military operations. “Our patrols from Dinalupijan are probing southward along the coast of Bataan. The 43rd Division on the Ist Corps’ sector repulsed an enemy night attack against nositions north-east of Rosario, inflicting heavy casualties. Our forces to the south captured San Jose and most of Lupao and are clearing the enemy from positions on high ground near Rizal?

“Our troops attacking an isolated enemy strongpoint at Munnz, made steady progress against stubborn resistance. Eleven enemy tanks were destroyed in this general area.” “Military observers in Washington predict that General MacArthur will ‘lead an all-out assault on the Japanese home islands,” says a correspondent. “They point out that few American commanders have gained General MacArthur’s military stature against similar odds. He has moved forward without a single tactical error and with an amazingly small loss of men ever since he turned back the Japanese at Port Moresby. The ‘On to Tokio’ drive will continue as primarily a land operation, with Admiral Nimitz having the job of keeping the supply lines open.

“General MacArthur has received ardent and unstinted support from Australia, and Mr. Curtin has stopped at nothing to give everything pos-

sible. In addition, General MacArthur has moulded American, British, Dutch, Australian, and Filipino soldiers into a’smart, hard-hitting military machine.” HURDLES IN THE WAY WASHINGTON, Feb. 7. General MacArthur’s offer to lead the way to Tokio has received a stout backing of Congressmen. Navy and War Department officials pointed out, unofficially that there are plenty of hurdles in the path of his selection as Commander-in-Chief. General MacArthur has now reached the northern limits of his. south-west Pacific theatre. Lord Mountbatten commands the South-east Asia theatre. The senior American commander in Asia itself is at present General Wedemeyer. It has widely been rumoured that General Stilwell will command any American invasion of China, and furthermore that the Navy considers the area northward of the Philippines to be a Navy show. It was suggested that General MacArthur’s blunt offer had virtually dared the High Command to name someone else.

MACARTHUR’S GENERAL ORDER.

WASHINGTON, February 6. General MacArthur has issued the following general order to his troops: “You- will shortly complete the liberation of the Philippines. You have redeemed a country’s pledge to recapture its lost land. You have inflicted the greatest military defeat in his history on the enemy. You are restoring to the East its destiny. You have fulfilled a sacred mission for the Hallowed Dead. For all this we have to thank God.”