Browning chief. [volume] (Browning, Mont.) 1941-1953, 1943-08-27
W.N.u.F FEATURES


simple Filipino people are than I'd
learned in months in Manila; also
learned the more Americanized they
are, the lousier they are.
Leaving this village, we kept on
down the road to an even timer one
on the coast-still looking for boats.
We found military headquarters
and Filipino third ieutenant-just
a kld-in command of twenty ma
tive troops, no machine guns and al
most no ammunition. Ten miles of
hard-surfaced road connected it with
a town where the Japs had landed.
He said Jap tank had come up
the road the first day but had turned
around and gone back. Why hadn't
he blown up the bridges? No dyna-
mite. What was he going to do if
the Jap tanks came again? What
could he do, he asked, but evacu-
ate? I noticed they had all their
gear packed into a bus, and that
under their uniforms they wore their
civilian clothing. And I couldn't
blame them. But they helped us
comb the place for boats, and we
finally located enough bancas to car
ry US, and showed off at dusk.
eve arrived at the next island
soaking wet but thankful, and glad
we were halted on the beach by ma
tive volunteer guards with home
made rifles, instead of by the Japs.
Here I said good-by to the Amer
lean civilians. They owned sugar
and coconut plantations and wanted
to get to their families. Then they
would try to get them to safety, but
where was safety? Or maybe, in
stead of wandering from island to is
land, it would be better to wait for
the Japs in their homes. They
couldn't decide. The whole easy.
comfortable American world was
cracking up fast in those islands. 1t
wasn't nice to watch.
meanwhile caught a ride in d
car to the islands military head
quarters where there was a general
in command, and told the army lieu
tenant at the desk that I wanted to
get over to the island beyond, pro-
vided the Japanese hadn't already
taken it-what did he know?
"Well, he said, he didn't know for
sure, but he didn't think the Japs
had taken it.
II asked him when he had last
communicated with military head
quarters over there.
"About a month ago, he said
"Well, I said, this was urgent-I
had to find out quick-wasn't there
any way of getting in communica-
ton with them?
"Well, he said, he guessed he
could pick up the telephone on his
planned, I was new around here and
didn't understand the local situa-
ton. 1t seemed that his general
and the general over on the other
island didn't get on at all-hadn't
liked each other since West Point.
You fellows may think you're fight
ing the Japanese he said, but here
we know better. The frontline
trenches of the real war are be-
tween these two generals However,
he said, my case made it different,
and since was naval officer and
therefore, so to speak, a neutral, he
thought he could take it on his own
responsibility to call up headquar-
tiers on the other island and ask in
my behalf if the Japanese had land
ed yet.
"He rang them up, and then re-
ported that at the other end of the
wire they were talking something
which wasn't English or Spanish.
Maybe it was Tagalog, which he
didn't speak himself, but just in
case it was Japanese l had probably
better find some other way of going
to Mindanao.
How the war between the gen
erals came out l never learned:
maybe their finishing it in a Japa-
nese prison camp.
1T took me days to get to Minda-
mao around through the islands, beg
ging rides in cars, hiring small
boats to cross little island channels.
My objective was to join Buckley,
who, they had said in Cebu, had
escaped the destroyer and was in
Mindanao. wanted to make my
report of my part of the battle to
him as commander of our squadron.
General Sharp, who commanded the
island, surely could tell me where
he was.
"a Chinese mestizo who was do
ing a smuggling business of luxury
articles among the islands finally
landed me, for an enormous price
in pesos, at tiny village on Mnda-
mao which had been abandoned by
everybody but one old man, who
said yes, a torpedo boat had been
in there the week before, and with
gestures drew pretty good picture
of Bulkeley's black beard. But he
said they'd been there only a few
hours, and left for he knew not
where. Then he asked when the
Japs were coming. Because all the
villagers had left, because they
were afraid they'd be killed, but l
didn't think the Japs would kill an
old man, did I?
II hoped a ride on truck on
down to Iligan, and there was Bulke-