TYPED LETTER SIGNED by the Philippines Free Press General Manager F. THEO ROGERS on the paper's stationery.

Manilla, Philippines, May 25, 1962., 1962.. Good. - Over 140 words typed on 11 inch high by 8-1/2 inch wide "Philippines Free Press, Inc." stationery. In a letter addressed to his friend "Joan" from on-board the ship "President Cleveland", Theo F. Rogers informs her that he is "half way" to his destination to visit his "folks" in the U.S. "and also, if possible, my friends like you." He goes on to list addresses where he could be reached when in the U.S., that of the Hotel St. George in Brooklyn and the First National City Bank of New York. Signed "F. Theo Rogers". The letter us creased with some chipping along the left edge and bottom left corner. Good.

Founded in 1908 by Jude Kinkaid with Pat Gallagher, the Philippines Free Press was taken over soon afterwards by Manilla Times editor R. McCulloch Dick, whose vignette portrait adorns the stationery's letterhead. Following the Philippines liberation from Japan at the end of the Second World War, the paper returned with vigor and came to be regarded as one of the most influential voices of the country. With half it's writers consisting of readers and subscriber to the paper, the Free Press tackled every significant event and exposed graft and abuse in public office. Indeed, the paper was frequently charged with libel by those whose actions it exposed in its columns. The paper's ownership passed on to F. Theo Rogers following R. McCulloch Dick's passing in 1960.

In 1898, the young American F. Theo Rogers landed in Manilla as a 16-year old soldier in the Spanish-American War. With brief absences, he stayed on for most of his life. One of the first Americans scooped up by the Japanese when they occupied the island in the early days of World War 2, Rogers was imprisoned and tortured in the dungeons of Fort Santiago for 3 months before being sent to the Santo Tomas internment camp. His health having deteriorated, Rogers was sent to the Philippine General Hospital from which he was rescued when American forces moved in to take the city.