TRUE LIBERATION

Otago Daily Times, Issue 25674, 24 October 1944, Page 5

TRUE LIBERATION

NO MILITARY GOVERNMENT FILIPINOS GIVEN CONTROL WASHINGTON, (Rec. 9.30 p.m.) Oct. 22. General MacArthur broadcast to the Filipinos a proclamation in which he promised to restore the sacred rights of government by the constitutional process as 1 rapidly as the occupied areas are liberated and the military situation permits. The United Press correspondent at General MacArthur's headquarters says: “ General MacArthur has brought liberation in the most literal sense to the Philippines. It is unlike any liberation m history, including the* most liberal attempts in the European theatre. By a force of Amercian and Filipino armies, General MacArthur is establishing nearly all the liberties promised originally for 1946. There is no military government. As fast as the Japanese are cleared out the Filipino leaders are given control. President Osmena will establish courts immediately, and the Filipinos themselves will deal with their own quislings. Currency, which is likely to be the major headache, will be studied and evaluated by a Filipino committee.” The Associated Press correspondent, Richard Bergholz, who is with the Rangers in ttje Philippines, says Ranger Lieutenant Tinnell told the following grim story of American courage:— 1 The most unforgettable man T knew at Mindanao was an American civilian who took to. the hills with his wife and baby after the Japanese conquest. They lived with guerrillas, constantly on the move and constantly without a feeling of security, but there came a time when the wife became sick and could not be moved.

“The Japanese were then reported to be moving against guerrilla . villages. The guerrillas pleaded with the American to save himself and child and flee with them, but he unhesitatingly refused. We did not hear from him again, but this is what happened. When the Japanese approached the American shot his wife and then his child. He then took cover, opened fire against the Japanese, and Killed many before they got him.” Liutenant Tinnell said he told the story because it typified the courage of thousands of Americans who escaped the Japanese, hid, and fought with the guerrillas. 1 '