THE PHILIPPINES: Borrowed Time

Manuel Roxas, first president of the Philippine Republic, gave a gay party last week to celebrate his own 27th wedding anniversary and the birthday of U.S. Ambassador Emmet O'Neal. Next day he left the cool interior of Malacanan Palace in Manila to keep an engagement at Clark Field, sun-baked U.S. airbase 50 miles northwest.

Dog-tired from the enormous task of piloting his country back from the brink of postwar chaos, Roxas rode around the sprawling installation in 94° heat. Then, from the stage of a G.I. theater named for War Hero Colin Kelly, he told 500 U.S. officers of his...

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