Good News for Filipinos

From Washington last week, ailing, exiled Philippine President Manuel Quezon sent his countrymen advice not to worry if they had to yield their property to the Japs. Quezon proclaimed Filipino adherence to a United Nations declaration pledging the return of all looted property in Axis-conquered countries to the rightful owners at war's end.

The declaration had gone by almost unnoticed when it was issued early in January; to Manuel Quezon and all Filipinos who heard of it, it was patent good news. After one year of occupation, the Jap had seized almost everything of value: railroads, utilities, industrial plants, mines, rice and sugar plantations. Some were taken outright; others were acquired by a show of legality, by stock purchases paid for with paper yen. Craftily the Jap had laid plans to hold economic control of the islands, even though he should lose the war.

On all types of seizure the declaration was firm: it guaranteed return of all property, whether taken by force or pseudo-legal means. Filipinos now had binding United Nations assurances that, come war's end, the Jap would be thrown out bodily.

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