Newsmonth

Media

Part of The Cross

Title: Newsmonth
Creator: Catholic Information Service
Language: English
Year: 1947
Rights
Fulltext: NATIONAL I-'KONT REIGN OF TERROR Terror reigned in the town of Calapan, Mindoro, as 32 provin cial prisoners staged a jailbreak. The jailbreakers under the com mand of Lt. Romero, a former MP official, overpowered the prov incial and municipal authorities and imprisoned officials includ ing Governor Conrado Morente and Mayor Filemon Samaco. Mil itary police and civilian volunteers finally captured the prisoners after a gun battle. Result: three persons killed, one of them, Lt. Nestor Romero. AIR EXODUS In what is probably the great est air lift in commercial history, 5,000 Filipino laborers were trans ported by air from Manila to Guam. The special flights take 60 men at a load. These Filipinos, many of them former employees of the US Army and Navy, are going to work for Morrison-Knud sen and Brown-Maxon. This com pany holds huge Army and Navy contracts for building Guam into the greatest military base in the Pacific. 53 LIFE TERM Ernest Berg, owner of the Escolta department store bearing his name, was sentenced to life imprisonment and fined P15.000 by the Fourth Division of the Peo ple’s Court. He was found guilty of treason. Berg is a naturalized Filipino citizefi of German birth. Taken aback by the decision, he became nervous and sat wearily as he listened to the sentence. DISSOLVED Four agencies were dissolved as the President ordered the creation of the Philippine Trade Relief and Trade Rehabilitation Administra tion. The agencies dissolved were the National Trading Corporation, the PRRA, the division of pur chasing department at New York. All the buying activities of the government will now be handled By the PRATRA. PRATRA will also deal with the rehabilitation of local trade and the relief of victims of war and other calami ties. HOUSES FOR THE MILLIONS The government, through the National Housing Commission, will shortly manufacture pre-faTHE CROSS bricated houses which will be within the reach of the people. The cement block house factory machinery has already arrived and the President has instructed the NHC to build six sample homes in Quezon City. The houses will be of the bungalow type, with two rooms, sala and kitchen which will be enough for one fa mily. They will cost P2,500 each. YLAC’S POOR The YLAC announced that 1,470 poor children are enrolled in their six YLAC Free Schools for the present schoolyear. In a recent meeting Miss Maria Aurora Que zon, YLAC President, asked that means be exerted to keep up the financial aid given to these schools. REPORTS Vice-President Elpidio Quirino, gave an account of his threemonth diplomatic tour around the world to his fellow cabinet mem bers. Among other things he said that the Filipino does not find any difficuly in his travels in Euro pean countries because the Eng lish and Spanish language which he speaks come in handy in all these countries. The Vice-Pres ident also told of how he was re ceived by His Holiness Pope Pius XII who showed great interest in the P.I. TB DRIVE In a simple ceremony at Malacahan, the President formally opened the Anti-Tuberculosis Campaign by giving his own per sonal contribution — a check for 1’1,000. It is said by TB authori ties that 36,000 Filipinos die year ly of this malady. Aim of the drive is to raise P600.000 for ex penses to combat the spread of tuberculosis. VOICE OF THE POOR Some 4,000 tenants of Nueva Ecija, and Pangasinan, filed a complaint with the Court of In dustrial relations seeking govern ment intervention in the execution of their tenancy contracts with their landowners. The complaint alleges that landowners in Alaminos have refused to enter into written agreement with the ten ants, thus deliberately avoiding compliance with the tenancy law when harvest comes. WATER, WATER, EVERYWHERE... Central Luzon provinces, in cluding Bulacan, Pampanga, Nue va Ecija, Taj-lac and Pangasinan, suffered considerable losses in crops and public works as a result of the heavy rains following the Pacific and China Sea depressions. Provinces sprawled along the Pampanga and the Agno rivers especially suffered from the flood that cover Central Luzon like a pall. Damage to rice crops alone is believed to have amounted to several thousand pesos. AUGUST, 1947 NEGLECTED MAC Residents of Palo, Leyte, re cently showed much concern over the monument dedicated to Gen eral MacArthur at Red Beach, Palo. The statue has been neglected and is now hidden be hind tall cogon grass. Several houses have also been built in front of it thus relegating the marker to the backyard. Palo’s municipal council has presented a resolution to the provincial board and the U.S. army authori ties for immediate aid. The mark er was erected on the very spot where the General first set foot on Philippine soil in 1944. SCHOOL CRISIS Some 375,000 school children are still denied admission to their classes due to the present lack of school. To solve this crisis a total of P12,300,000 will be needed for the organization of some 7,500 ad ditional elementary school classes. So far funds available total bare ly P3,000,000 with which only 1,600 extension classes can be au thorized. AT LAST... The USAFFE back pay bill has been approved by the armed serv ices committee of the U.S. Senate, Some $67,000,000 have been ear marked for P.I. Veterans. Com menting on the approval, Major Gen. Rafael Jalandoni, chief of staff, PA said: “This is an elo quent indication of America's de sire to do justice to the Filipino soldiers who fought during the war.” Meanwhile Major Moore of the PHILRYCOM has released the statement that all Veterans would be paid their due by Dec ember. COURT-SHOW A documentary film was re cently screened as evidence against the Puppet President Jose Laurel, in his trial for treason before the people’s court. The newsreel together with some ma gazines, photographs and record ings were identified by Kazuma Nakayama who arrived in Manila from Tokyo for the sole purpose of testifying in collaboration cases. During the screening, Lau rel was quoted on the sound tracks as declaring: “United with Japan, no other nation in the world can stop the onward march of the one billion peoples of Asia.” INTERNATIONAL FRONT POPE AND LABOR Pope Pius XII recently received fourteen members of the United States delegation to the interna tional labor conference held in Geneva. Said his Holiness: “The Catholic Church always defends the worker against any system which would deny his inalienable rights,” 56 THE CROSS SECRETS THIEF Earnest Wallis was arrested for theft of some of the atomic bomb secrets from Los Alamos. Some 200 photographs and nega tives shov/ing phases-of atom bomb construction and test ex plosions were found in his studio. Many of the pictures were classi fied as "top secrets.” Earnest Wallis is an ex-GI. BARBERS PROTEST Shanghai Barbers issued hand bills July 14 asking all righteous officials, gentlemen, ladies and newspapers to join their chorus of protest against a moving picture depicting a barber seducing a millionaire’s wife. The 2,500 barb ers who protested for four days claimed the film is especially in sulting to their profession. ENGAGED Britain’s Princess Elizabeth was recently engaged to ex-prince of Greece and Denmark Philip Mountbatten, who is a great-great grandson of Queen Victoria. At 26 Mountbatten is bobby soxer’s ideal and a man’s man. Tall, fair haired, blue eyed and with the profile of a classic Greek statue, he has been the object of comehither-looks from Britain’s most glittering debutante as well as from poor wistful girls. 49TH STATE The House' has voted to make the Hawaiian Islands a state and to add a 49th star to the United States flag. The vote was 196 to 133. The bill was sent to the se nate for action. The bill would en able the people of the islands to form a constitution and state gov ernment and be admitted to the union on equal footing with the other states. GERMS TO “FIGHT” Scientists are getting germs to_ “fight” among themselves on the chance that the bout may pay off by producing some medicines use ful for man. This unique match making attempt is only one of the intensive research going on in many countries to try to find new germ combating materials in such microbes as fungi and bacteria. Penicillin and streptomycin it will be remembered were derived from such sources. MATADOR Philippine matador Pepete made a spectacular killing of his bull July 23 in Gijon, Spain. Occasion was a charity bull-fight festival. After failing in his first attempt with his sword he succeeded in making the kill after three tries with his estoc. ASSASSINATED Six members of Bin ma’s "inde pendent cabinet” were killed July 20 by assassins who stormed brazenly into the Rangoon meetAUGUST, 1947 r»7 ing of the officials. The killers machine gunned the men at the meeting in an attempt at mass murder. Six members were killed and the rest seriously wounded. The council guards who tried to intercept the killers when they drove up in the building also were shot. RESCUE One American and thirty seven . Filipino members of the crew have been rescued from the wreck Philippine freighter -Dona Trinidad. The rescue was affected by a Russian merchant vessel, after the Trinidad ran aground on the Nijogan reefs, 100 miles north of Japan’s most northerly island of Hokkaido. A second Russian ship ran aground during an earlier rescue operation. All the members of the crew are re ported safe. CONFESOR RAPS US Senator Tomas Confesor criti cized the United States for “throwing away billions of dollars on Balkan countries which are causing America all kinds of trouble, while charging interest on loans to the P.I. which was crushed while helping to save the world for democracy.” Confesor, who is at present in Washington, also called attention to what he termed the disproportionate at tention paid in Washington to. the explosive situation in the Far East generally and to Philippine affairs in particular. PARASITE FIGHTER Army Air Forces have under production a new type of fighter plane that can be carried in the bomb bay of a B-36 bomber and. launched in midair to fight off enemy attack. This new-type “parasite fighter” is designated as the XP-85. A small plane, the new fighter has a jet engine. Air Force officers claim it could be launched in midair and return to its mother plane. APT RETORT When the German Emperor visited Pope Leo XIII, Count Bis marck tried to follow into the audience chamber. A gentleman of the Papal Court motioned him to stand back, as there must be no third person at the interview. “I am count Herbert Bismarck,” shouted the German, as he strug gled to follow his master. "That,” replied the Roman with calm dignity, "accounts for, but does not excuse, your conduct.”