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APPROPRIATION BILL FOR 1944

HEARINGS

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BEFORE A

SUBCOMMITTEE OF THE

COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
UNITED STATES SENATE

SEVENTY-EIGHTH CONGRESS

FIRST SESSION

ON

H. R. 3598

AN ACT MAKING APPROPRIATIONS TO SUPPLY DEFICIENCIES
IN CERTAIN APPROPRIATIONS FOR THE FISCAL YEAR
ENDING JUNE 30, 1944, AND FOR PRIOR FISCAL

YEARS, TO PROVIDE SUPPLEMENTAL APPRO-

PRIATIONS FOR THE FISCAL YEAR
ENDING JUNE 30, 1944, AND

FOR OTHER PURPOSES

92094

Printed for the use of the Committee on Appropriations

UNITED STATES
GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE

WASHINGTON: 1943

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The subcommittee met, pursuant to call, at 10:30 a. m., Hon. Kenneth McKellar presiding.

Present: Senators McKellar, Hayden, Thomas of Oklahoma, Overton, Nye, Holman, and Brooks.

Also present: Senator Green.

Senator MCKELLAR. The committee will please come to order.

OFFICE FOR EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT

OFFICE OF WAR INFORMATION

STATEMENTS OF ELMER DAVIS, DIRECTOR; ROBERT E. SHERWOOD, DIRECTOR OF OVERSEAS OPERATIONS BRANCH; JOSEPH BARNES, DEPUTY DIRECTOR, ATLANTIC OPERATIONS; AND FERDINAND KUHN, DEPUTY DIRECTOR FOR INFORMATION POLICY

Senator MCKELLAR. Mr. Davis, on page 5 of the bill you will find the House allowed you $5,000,000 for the Office of War Information. Will you make a statement about this?

Senator HOLMAN. Before he makes that statement, may I ask just one question?

Senator MCKELLAR. Yes, Senator.

Senator HOLMAN. I would like to know if what this Deficiency Committee is now considering in this item and in subsequent items that will come up is the same as those reductions which we made in the original bills at the beginning of the session. In other words, are we going right over the same ground Congress once passed over? Senator MCKELLAR. In some cases, that may be true.

Senator HOLMAN. I would like for that to be pointed out by the witnesses, wherever there is an item that has already been passed on and they are just merely coming back at another time to go over it again. If so, I would like for those items to be defined, if you please.

Mr. DAVIS. I do not think, Senator, that applies to anything in this particular request.

1

AMOUNT ALLOWED IN REGULAR 1944 ACT FOR CONTINGENCY FUND

Last year, as you remember, the Congress allowed us $2,250,000 for the Domestic Branch, plus liquidating expenses; $24,000,000 for normal operations of the Overseas Branch, and $5,000,000 as a contingency fund for projects that could not then be foreseen, in support of military operations.

We had originally asked for a contingency fund of $10,000,000 and we told the House committee when it came up we had no idea how much we were going to need during the year; that $10,000,000 was a pretty much of a guess, and the House committee proposed to allow us $5,000,000 and suggested to us if we found that was insufficient we might come back and ask Congress for more. That is the cause of the request at this time.

Senator HOLMAN. Is any showing made at all as to what you have done with the money that you have already been allowed? I would like, for myself, to see at least exhibits of what you spent the money for. Mr. DAVIS. We can give you a great many exhibits. We cannot give you very much accounting because a large part of this money has been spent in Italy and Sicily, from which we have been unable to get any accounts as yet, because our men over there are right up in the combat zone with the armies. The Army pays the bills on the spot and we reimburse the Army. The Army is pretty busy. We have not been able to get our reports back.

Senator MCKELLAR. Well, suppose we let Mr. Davis go ahead and make his statement and then cross-examine him. Anyone can ask any questions.

Mr. DAVIS. Gentlemen, I shall speak very briefly and the executives of the Overseas Branch who are here will fill in the details.

PURPOSE OF CONTINGENCY FUND

As I say, this $5,000,000 which the Congress allowed us last June was for money in direct support of military operations and for strictly military contingencies which could not then be foreseen.

ADDITIONAL AMOUNT REQUESTED

We are

We are asking for $5,000,000 more for that same purpose. not asking for any more for the normal operations of the Office of War Information, either overseas, or domestic. We are asking for the money solely for our propaganda work in active theaters of war, in direct support of the armies, and we are asking it because of the greatly expanded scope of action and still more of projected military operations.

When we were before the Congress last spring, the Army had just finished the African campaign. It had not yet begun in Italy and Sicily.

Since then, Sicily has been conquered and a good part of Italy has been occupied. Our men have had to go up with the armies, taking over the direction of the radio stations and of the press as each area is liberated, besides doing a great deal of actual propaganda at the front in support of the armies. We have every reason to hope that the Mediterranean operations will be expanded very greatly.

PSYCHOLOGICAL WARFARE BRANCH

There is what is known as the Psychological Warfare Branch of the allied headquarters, under military command, but with a man from O. W. I. as its executive officer, which includes all our people in Africa and a few men from the Office of Strategic Services who are assigned comparable work. Most of them are doing quite different things, and, also, the British are from the Ministry of Information and the Political Warfare Executive, who are doing the same sort of thing as we are. Since that is a combined operation of the military, it is a combined operation of propaganda as well. Colonel Hazeltine, a regular officer of the United States Army, is in charge with C. D. Jackson, of the O. W. I., as executive officer.

A comparable organization will be set up in London.

If I may speak off the record.

Senator MCKELLAR. Yes.

(After discussion off the record.)

Mr. DAVIS. The O. W. I. is going to have to furnish most of the material for that sort of thing. For example, we can get low powered radio transmitters, which are very useful in front-line propaganda; the portable printing presses.

QUESTION AS TO POSSIBILITY OF OBTAINING MATERIALS FOR O. W. I. THROUGH LEND-LEASE IN REVERSE

Senator MCKELLAR. Just one moment. Let me interrupt here if I may.

In view of the recent publication about lend-lease in reverse, would it be possible to get any of those materials on that score? Mr. DAVIS. I should doubt that, sir.

Mr. SHERWOOD. We are using some of them, Mr. Chairman, but radio equipment is very, very scarce in Great Britain now; new radio equipment; but we have got actually some British transmitters that are assigned for our use.

Mr. DAVIS. It is the new stuff, Senator, that the British seem unlikely to get. It is a question of materials.

Senator MCKELLAR. Go ahead.

INCREASE IN SCOPE OF OPERATIONS

Mr. DAVIS. That operation, as I say, will probably be quite as large as the Mediterranean operation.

Now, there is further a job that we are going to have to do in connection with the campaign in eastern Asia.

Then we have further some work to be done from Australia as a base, in the various islands which are going to be liberated. We are doing some work there already, but we shall have to extend that very greatly as military operations expand in that quarter.

So that we face the prospect that where last year when we came up to the Congress, we had an operation about like this [indicating] in north Africa, and now it is fanning out something like this [indicating].

We cannot tell how much money we are going to need in the course of the year for this work in direct support of military operations.

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