dust of the field. They slept where they fell. At dusk they woke, staggered over to the Grand Hotel, which was military headquarters, for a meal. During the long, five-course dinner of East Indian tradition, which even war did not disturb, they would fall asleep again, pillowing their young heads on the tablecloth. Between eleven and one that same night they would take off: running the steady ferry service, transporting unexpendable officers and men, precious papers, supplies, and gold to Australia. The next day they would be back again. Nobody got any days off.
The men who were moved by plane had to be supplied with rations for the trip and for the additional three days' trek from Broome to Alice Springs. The solution of this problem was added to Dr. Wassel's various and varied duties. Working with the purchasing department of Colonel Eubank's forces, which was made up of all Standard Oil and American Tobacco representatives in Java, he went everywhere in the island buying up every available tin of food on the storekeepers' shelves. Tins of herring, cheese, pickles, fruit, hors d'oeuvres, cans of American corn, peas, and tomatoes, Japanese and Norwegian sardines, olives — every sort of food that comes in a can. The tins were taken in army trucks to the landing field and dumped. Every man evacuated from Java was told to fill his pockets from the dump, with the warning that the food he could carry with him would be all the rations he could expect to get until he reached Alice Springs.
Then came orders from Admiral Hart: "Evacuate all wounded who can stand a hard trip." The doctor read the orders through a second time, and a third. What did the admiral mean by "a hard trip"? What kind of strain would be put on these men, some of whom were in a state bordering on shell shock in which they easily became hysterical? Could men in such plight stand the journey by plane, or crowded into a small ship, to Australia? Could they risk being torpedoed and flung into the sea? Between such hazards and the eventuality of falling captive to the Japs, which was the lesser evil? As the doctor went into the wards, every
