Evening star., 1942-07-05
BY James e. Wingo.

MdcArthur.-Hdrri -EUing Photo.
countries written during his pre-Pearl
Harbor tour of Far Eastern countries
won for him this years Pulitzer Prize of
$500 for foreign correspondence.
"On our way to the airport we found
soldiers, Americans and Filipino boys,
II to 19 years Old totally exhausted,
dragging themselves along and dragging
their guns after them" relates Col.
Romulo They had not seen any food
but handful of rice a day for two
months. Our soldiers, who were a little
stronger had to carry them off the road
so they would not be crushed by the cars
Spirit of Camaraderie.
II would stop and talk to them. Get
up I would say. They would merely
grin and say, Tt can't be done, sir They
had no complaint. Their spirit was still
strong but their bodies could no longer
endure the punishment the japanese
were dealing them"
Never in the history of United States
Philippine relations had there been such
a fine manifestation of American
Filipino camaraderie as existed in
Bataan, according to Col. Romulo. When
he came to group of American soldiers,
they would cheer him
Here's a Filipino officer" Col. Romulo
heard one group say. Three cheers for
the brave Filipinos. They are being
killed like rats, but they are dying like
men,
Filipino soldiers also thought very
highly of their American comrades, ac-
cording to Col. Romulo. Fiipinos used
to say: The Americans are damned
good fighters. 1t is a shame they are
such easy targets for the little Japs.
They are too big
Finally Col. Romulo reached the
Bataan airfield. 1t was being heavily
bombed. "All the planes are gone, sir"
said his driver. What shall we do?"
the driver kept on asking for his next
order
Amidst all that bombing and she'll
ing" says Col Romulo, "all could say
was: Keep quiet. You are making so
much noise that can't think"
Flight From Bataan.
Eventually Col Romulo left Bataan
in an old wrecked Grumann amphibian
plane flsned out of Mariveles Bay, which
he and Capt. Roland j. Barnick had
patched up for three days. With Capt.
Barnick at the controls, the plane went
up 10 feet into the air and then began
dropping. They threw away their metal
helmets and other things they could do
without to make the plane lighter. They
finally got the plane up to l40 feet when
the japanese shelled them with cap
tured American anti-aircraft guns. Twice
the planes wings were hit, but it kept
going on.
They planned to land on the Visayan
island of Cebu, but they spotted Japa-
nese destroyers there. They headed for
Iloilo and landed on that other Visayan
island with an empty gas tank. From
there they went farther south to
Mindanao Eventually Romulo and
Barnick reached Australia, always just
a step ahead of the Japanese.
AS publisher, editor, university profess
sor and playwright, small (even for
Filipino, suave 43-year-old Col. Romulo
is one of the Philippines most learned
men. He has been for long time one
of Commonwealth President Manuel Luis
Quezons unofficial advisers. He accom-
panied Mr.. Quezon in many of the
Filipino leaders official missions to
Washington. He reputedly has been
asked to join the cabinet of President
Quezons government -in-exile in Wash
ington, but he prefers to return to Aus
tralia.
Until the Japanese invasion of the
Philippines Col. Romulo was publisher
and editor of the Philippines Herald, one
of Manila's three dailies in English. He
was active in business, civic and political
affairs He was regent of the Univer-
sity of the Philippines, first vice presi-
dent of the Rotary International and
board member of several Philippine cor
porations. Last year he led in straw
polls on the election for members of the
new Philippine Senate, but his party
did not nominate him.
Romulo is one of the most distin-
guished products of American -estab-
lished public schools in the Philippines.
He learned English first from American
soldiers turned into teachers. He was q
bright student and at 10 was graduate