Calking Job

In seven months, the U.S. was pledged to knock the chocks from under the Philip pine ship of state and send it sliding into the treacherous sea of independence. War had holed the uncompleted hull. Hurriedly the Administration in Washington planned a patching job. Last week, while the tools and blueprints were still being got together, it sent Indiana's slightly dented political knight-errant, Paul V. McNutt, off to Manila as High Com missioner, to straw-boss the work.

Neither the islands nor the job were new to McNutt, but both had changed immeasurably since his prewar term (1937-39) as U.S. High Commissioner. The ruins of Philippine economy were almost as visible as the ghastly wreckage of Manila. Business was virtually paralyzed, black markets had shot prices out of sight, and a confusion of currencies-- prewar money, guerrilla money, invasion money -- complicated all trading. Filipinos stood sullenly by without credit while the old Spanish business families and the Chinese merchants did the best they could with what opportunities they could find.

This aftermath of war had its yeasty effect upon the minds of the Filipino people; unrest and political dissension multiplied in the hot & humid atmosphere of peace. The homeless, poverty-stricken masses had watched cynically as members of the Philippines Congress (many of whom had kept their jobs under the Japanese) voted themselves full salaries for the last three years. The wartime bitter ness over collaboration still licked and smoked through all ranks of Filipino society.

Men with Guns. In the interior of Luzon and in the back provinces of many another island the Communist-led Huk-balahaps (People's Army against Japan) were an explosive political force. The "Huks" had fought, 80,000 strong, against the Japs. By last week, still armed, they had become the heart of a loose, new peasant political party, the Democratic Alliance, and they were being loudly whooped up in the U.S. left-wing press as the hope of the Philippines.

But all this unrest was not without its good side. The "Huks" were violent, crude and openly headed for Communism, but the uneasiness their strong talk generated had dissolved the atmosphere of lethargic resignation in which Manuel Quezon had performed his hypnotic political legerdemain. In Washington last week aging President Sergio Osmena asked the U.S. to hold a Philippine election before April 30.

Whether Osmena was returned to power or was succeeded by energetic, popular Manuel Roxas, president of the Philippine Senate, the political situation would be brought to some kind of head before independence became a fact.

Meanwhile the U.S. would do its best to clamp down on the black markets, straighten the currency muddle, extend credit and speed the shipment of goods to the islands. Last week the Administration also made up its mind on trade policy; it would ask Congress to give the Philip pines free trade with the U.S. for eight years and tariffs which would rise gently for 25 years after that.

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