gee. We euAt Goed to push westward and found ourselves in Peleliu,

one of the Paulau Islands and the western most of the Caroline Islands, This —
is another island of coral formation. The history of these Islands dates back
to their discovery by the Portugese in 1527. In 1686 they were annexed by Spain
and renamed in honor of Charles II. In 1899 Germany purchased these Islands
from Spain and after World War I, they were placed under Japanese Mandate.

You have read the current history in the newspapers and know “hat is happening
to them,

MABOHAY ang FILIFINAS! In case you don't know, the meaning is
"Tong life to the Filipinos", I am sure you hear it over the radio from Gen-
eral Mac Arthur's broadcasting station, Yes we were in San Pedro Bay, leyte,
of the Philippines. The bay is between the islands of Samar and leyte, both
a part of the Philippines, During our stay in this area the crew, the sections,
had two liberty parties ashore. Of course there wasn't much opportunity to do
much sightseeing, but we did get a chance to see a bit of these famed islands
in the Philippines.

The islands are all mountainous and during the morning and early
evening are covered with fog banks and low hanging clouds. The weather was
hot and humid with very little rain during the time we were there.

A few of us did get into the province capitol of Leyte, Tacloban,
One of the Saturday Evening Post correspondents wrote three articles about
Leyte which appeared sometime during January and February. If you can, get
these back copies from the public library.

The natives of Leyte and Samar are very small in stature, dark |
skinned and most of them look underfed, which they probably are. We saw little
kids who couldn't have been more than four or five years of age, doing the fam-_
~ ily washing in one of the fresh water streams that run from the mountains into
the ocean.

Tacloban, capitol of the province of Leyte, was fantastic. There
were two main streets in the town which were at right angles to each other and
met in the center of town, When we were there, that "State and Madison", "Times
Square" or "Market and Fifth Street" crossroads of Tacloban was an ankle deep
mudhole, The houses were mostly two stories and looked like they were built to
last about two weeks, The province capitol building was a huge structure, modeled
after one of the periods of Greek Architecture and surrounded by massive pillars.
Closeup inspection revealed that the plaster was scaling off, the interior was
the worse for wear due to the peculiarities of modern warfare and in general it
looked like many of our real estate developements at home did after that "era
of wonderful nonsense" which was climaxed in 1929.

With this we close Vol, I, No. 1, of TELFAIR TALES with the promice
that in due time and within the limits of existing regulations, other chapters

will be sent you. And SO + - - with Oceans of Love, I remain your nautical
correspondent,

JACK TAR; Editor.
Sis

NOT FOR PUBLICATION