In addition, to the two boxes received by each prisoner,
 
each of us also received fifteen cans of corned beef or meat-and-
 
vegetable stew. This was rationed to us by the Japanese at the
 
rate of two cans a week, and it therefore lasted us approximately
 
eight weeks. The food during those eight weeks was the best and
 
most nourishing I received in all the eleven months of my im-
 
prisonment by the Japanese.
 
     But our belated Christmas rejoicings had a dark side,
 
too. In the first place, we learned that our precious RedCross
 
supplies had been received aboard a diplomatic ship back in
 
June of 1942, in Japan. We never learned why it took them some
 
seven months to reach us in Davao. More catastrophic was the
 
fact that, as soon as our boxes were received, the Japanese
 
promptly discontinued the meager supply of vegetables which we
 
had been rationed in the past. And when each man had eaten the 
 
last of his fifteen cans of meat, the vegetables still were with-
 
held from us.
 
     In short, we were back on the same rations we had
 
received at cabanatuan--lugao in the morning, and rice with a
 
half-canteen cupful of watery camote-top soup for the other two
 
meals.
 
     This was in March of 1943, and by that time our plans
 
for escape had gone well forward, with myself as senior officer
 
and will Mellnik as executive.
 
     "How far is it to Australia from here, Commander?"
 
Sergeant Marshall asked me one day, while we were out on the
 
coffee detail.
 
                                              - 68-