(Labor Day). Manila quiet; but there are pictures in the press of policemen trying on gas masks, which would naturally work for quiet! I saw a group of police with riot guns in front of the Post Office. Malacañan is deserted; Quezon manages to spend only one day at a time there sandwiched in between his voyages.
Out with Lapointe to visit Geo. Logan in the Spanish Hospital at San Pedro Makati. This is the most modern (3 years old) and apparently the best managed hospital in Manila, and it is run by the Spanish community. Then went to the Manila Hotel to say good-bye to “Andy” Anderson who is going (reluctantly) home on leave. Then to Tommy Wolff’s house where his 28th annual picnic for employes of the Sanitary Steam Laundry Co. was held on the lawn. Julius Rees back from United States, says conditions are improving there–he believes Roosevelt is sure of re-election. Rees approves the adoption of a new United States tax on the undivided profits of corporations. Talked with the United States Shipping Board man: in my day there were 30,000 tons a month shipped out of the Philippines–now nearly 10 times as much. Hence the great show of ships. He said that when independence comes, only the hemp industry could survive–sugar cannot compete with Java. Rees is however, also very pessimistic as to the future of the United States.
Lapointe tells me that in all the years he has spent in the Philippines, he has never known a Filipino to repay money borrowed!
Should have gone this noon to the German Club for their National Day–and was even anxious to do so, though no doubt, some of their older members were among those whom I deported to the United States detention camps during the war–but I could not stomach the thought of drinking Hitler’s health! Believe I should have vomited!