ARMY & NAVY: Mystery Fleet

ARMY & NAVY

A customs collector in Davao, main town of Mindanao Island, reported last week that a number of unidentified vessels had anchored in Davao Gulf—unidentified because the nearest U. S. naval base with cutters or airplanes capable of investigating was on Manila Bay, 600 miles away. Wildly diverse reports filtered through to Manila, disagreeing as to the size and number of ships, never as to their nationality. This was because there are in Davao more than 20,000 prosperous Japanese, who control the Philippine hemp industry, own 63,800 acres under legal leases, even more illegally. At week's end, three Philippine Army planes flew from Manila, scouted the Davao area. Most correspondents concluded from official silence that nobody could find a war fleet, that the jittery customs officer had seen either some harmless tankers or fishing boats, or an equally harmless yellow mirage.