To lunch here: Mr. and Mrs. Alexander Sycip (formerly Bonnie Liu). Mr. Sycip’s grandfather came to Manila from Amoy. His Chinese name was “Hsueh”, which is pronounced “Si” in Amoy dialect. The origin of the “cip” is unknown, but probably the Amoy pronunciation of another Chinese character. In the Spanish days, anybody who was baptized into the Catholic Church became ipso facto a Spanish subject. Sycip grandpére was baptized and given the Christian name Jose Larade Sy. My other guests were Charles Glaser of E.C.A. and Chapman, whom I met once in Shanghai. He used to be with Mackay radio, but is now retired. He had the next bed to W.H. Donald while interned at St. Tomas and was with him in Shanghai when he died — and a bearer at his funeral. He told me that he has a verbatim record of many of Donald’s stories and recollections made during internment. He has sent to America for them, and will let me see them if they arrive before I leave. He said that Donald would never have permitted the publication of “Donald of China” had he lived. Donald paid the author of that book $4,000! He could have gotten 25 to 50 thousand dollars from the S.E.P. or Time for his autobiography.
Had an hour’s talk with Jacinto in the office. He is very anxious to prepare legislation to improve the Customs organization, and wants me to get Bradley out here as soon as possible to help him. Spoke to Cecchi about it. Called on Donn Muni (away for a week), Wilkins (Manila Bulletin) and Ramon Escoda. Col. Miguel Enriquez came to my room at 9 a.m. to hand me copies of documents prepared last June by the reorganization committee of the Ministry of Finance setting forth a plan of reorganization of the Customs. (This was before the Bell Mission was formed.)