The Wilmington morning star. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1909-1990, 1945-10-24

subjected our defenses to art1l-
Iery fire.
beginning April 20 - the
Emperor's Birthday - hostile
artillery fire increased In in
tensity and has continued at
that tempo to the present.
The hostile bombing has been
relatively ineffective but artil-
lery fire from large caliber
guns - 240 nm. - has des-
stroyed a large percentage Of
coast and beach defense artil-
lery and small arms. Since
April 9 continued lombard
ment has caused about six
hundred casualties and has
lowered the morale of troops.
Difficult to maintain morale
at best because troops have
been under or subject to artil-
lery or air sttack constantly
since December 20 and have
received half of poorly-balanc-
ed ration since Jan. s. Morale,
however, is amazingly good
considering conditions under
which troops are presently ope-
rating. Persistent reports from
operatives indicate that every
plan to launch assault against
Corregidor. He has prepared
a large number of motor boats
with mounted weapons and con-
structed large numbers Of
smaller boats for troop trans
port. l have nothing on which
to base an estimate of present
hostile strength of troops on
Luzon. However, the enemy In
taking Cebu and Panay used
about 10000 men in each ope-
ration. He is now engaged In
attack on M ldanao. l estimate
that at least 10000 men are
engaged on Mindanao.
"Unless Japanese Troops
have been withdrawn from
the Philippines I believe suffi-
cient force is left on Luzon to
undertake an operation against
Corregidor. In my opinion the
the enemy is capable of maxi
ing an assault on Corregidor
at any time.
success or failure of such
assault will depend entirely on
the steadfastness of beach de-
Tense troops. Considering the
present level Of morale esti-
mate that we have something
less than an even chance to
beat off an assault. have CIV
en- you in accordance with your
request very frank and hon
est opinion of the situation as
see it,"
It was time to see to the burn
ing or disposal of code books ane
secret papers, just as I had earlier
found means of doing away with
or hiding, Corregidor's wealth.
MUCH CURRENCY
The gold reserve of the Philip
pines had been sent to the United
States for safekeeping early in thu
war. But considerable wealth
found its way only as far as The
Rock. While the Japs framed theil
assault on the island I still hae
responsibility for $40, 100000 ir
Philippine currency and SIS, 900, 00l
in highly negotiable silver.
Gen. Douglas Macarthur in
structed me to take down The
serial numbers of the banknotes
radio the list to the Treasury De
partment in Washington, and Gu
up and burn the money. This we
did. When the job was done ane
the serial numbers had been radio
ed, we destroyed our lists of bank
note numbers, as did the Honolulu
relaying station which moved the
numbers on to Washington. These
eventually reappeared OF
fresh Philippine bills, after the
liberation - bills which had the
word Victory spelled out acros!
their backs.
The. silver coins, valued at SIS,
900, 900, presented much more o
a problem. Under the direction O.
Gen. Moore they were sealed il
wooden boxes and for three sue
cessive nights these boxes wer,
towed out into the Bay, on barge
and dropped at a carefully sur
veyed point between Corregido.
and Fort Hughes. The location o
the silver, on such notations a!
we were forced to make, was ra
diced to Washington and all docu
ments pertaining thereto wer'
burned.
This was not the last I was t,
hear of the silver. During the ear
ly days of my captivity I wa
constantly questioned about it. Tn,
Japs knew we had hid it in tn,
Bay, but they never found gu
where it rested.
1t took no mental giant to figur,
out, by May 5, 1912, that the enem
was ready to invade Corregidor
For further confirmation of my be
llefs, had a courageous Philip
pine Army officer posted in Mani
la with clandestine radio. A
great risk to his life, he reporte,
to me that the Japs Fourth Div
sion had finished extensive landin
maneuvers on the shores of Ca
vite, near our old naval base.
He further revealed to me tina