Exchange of Messages Between the President and the President of the Philippine Republic, on Bataan Day.

His Excellency

Carlos P. Garcia

President of the Philippine Republic

On behalf of the people of the United States, I send Bataan Day greetings to our friends in the Philippines. Bataan Day is a solemn day for both nations, for it is a time when we pause to remember the price, and consider the meaning of freedom.

To try to recapture in words the deeds of the men of Bataan is not possible. By their action they expressed the true spirit of freedom better than words could ever do. That spirit is what we commemorate today.

We also commemorate the comradeship which has bound our two nations together so strongly in the past, and which continues to be so vital in the anxious present.

The dangers which now confront us are in a sense just as real as those that were faced on Bataan fifteen years ago. So we continue to draw upon the spirit of devotion, of comradeship and of courage which is the noble legacy of Bataan.

DWIGHT D. EISENHOWER

NOTE.: The message from the President of the Philippines follows:

To Dwight D. Eisenhower:

On this April 9 we are commemorating the fifteenth anniversary of the Fall of Bataan. On behalf of the people of the Philippines I send our best wishes to you and to the people of the United States.

Bataan will always stand in our history as a symbol of a heart-rending struggle by the peoples of two nations fighting side by side for the common goal of liberty, freedom, and democracy.

We are pledged that the spirit of Bataan shall not perish and that those gallant American and Filipino heroes who died for democracy shall not have died in vain.

Today our two peoples are fighting the more subtle enemy, Communism, which is trying to subvert the ideals we fought for on Bataan.

The Filipino people know well the benefits of liberty and freedom and will continue to fight with the great spirit exemplified on Bataan to preserve those ideals.

CARLOS P. GARCIA