A ship brought 100,000 sacks of rice from Saigon, and another is expected soon with 80,000 sacks. The rice is needed so badly that when Mrs. Buencamino, wife of the NARIC president, heard the ships were on the way, she went to church to pray for their safe arrival; that is, she prayed that American submarines might sink anything and everything but not those ships.

Victor Buencamino went to the piers to inspect the unloading by some 100 American prisoners. At some point, he placed two bunches of bananas in the car's running board. Another member of his party faced the Japanese guards while holding two packets of cigarettes behind his back. The POWs collected the gifts without the guards noticing. One of them even whispered: "We expect them in November." How's that for spirit?