"Grand Hotel"

To Filipinos in happier days, the Government-owned Manila Hotel had been something--something more than a big, square, sturdy building, usually brimming with Americans and noisy with their doings. To Manilans it was the "Grand Hotel of the Orient" and they were proud of it as a symbol of Manila's progress. Its penthouse was the residence of General Douglas MacArthur and a floor or two below, in an apartment overlooking the harbor, lived Admiral Tommy Hart, commander of the U.S. Asiatic fleet.

Last week Manilans again looked proudly on the 33-year-old building. Its once immaculately white exterior was shell-scarred and shabbily patched--Americans and Japanese had battled for the building, floor by floor. But the Manila Hotel was back in business (after a year as an Army billet).

Its high-ceilinged lobby was almost bare; there was now a bar and a barber shop (but no hot water). There was dancing every night in what had been the "Fiesta Pavilion," now roofed by makeshift sheets of galvanized iron. Bright decorations hid fire-blackened walls. The furniture was rickety, the silverware a jumble of designs--anything that could be borrowed. But Manila again had its galas. The "Grand Hotel" was now a symbol of hopeful days ahead: the Government hoped to have it spick & span, newly furnished by July 4, the day set for Philippine independence.

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