Temporary Arrangement

• Share

Crowds will assemble throughout the Philippines publicly to celebrate the restoration of peace, said the Berlin radio.

The small, greying man in a dapper blue suit, arriving at Washington's Union Station, knew what kind of peace the voice was talking about. And Manuel Quezon knew where the voice came from; he knew his people would never submit. "They will come out of the hills where they are hiding and they will fight as long as they have one bullet left."

As he stepped out of Union Station into the bright afternoon sun, Manuel Quezon saw his great & good friend Franklin Roosevelt standing beside the black Presidential limousine. "Mister Presidente!" he exclaimed, arms outstretched. He shook the Roosevelt hand, then clutched the massive Roosevelt arms. In turn, he was almost crushed in a Roosevelt embrace. Houses will be decorated with Japanese flags and Japanese ideas of culture and enlightenment will be proclaimed, cooed Berlin.

Perhaps Manuel Quezon thought back to another day or proclamation, less than seven years ago, when he, once an insurrectionist fighting against the U.S., was installed with U.S. help as the Philippines' first President. He knew what Japanese "enlightenment" was.

Franklin Roosevelt said: "I have brought all the former Governors and High Commissioners, for 20 years back, down here to greet you." Excited, happy Manuel Quezon greeted Henry L. Stimson, Dwight F. Davis, Frank Murphy, Paul V. McNutt, Francis B. Sayre.

To the press, President Quezon said nothing of what his Government-in-exile would do. But it was plain that he considered himself only a temporary visitor. Though his health is frail he knew that, like his friend General MacArthur, he will some day return to his people who are hiding in the hills, to the little, slight-boned, brave men who are standing up, silent, patient, enduring, against the Jap.