WORLD WAR VETERANS' LEGISLATION HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, COMMITTEE ON WORLD WAR VETERANS' LEGISLATION, The committee met at 10 o'clock a. m., Hon. Royal C. Johnson (chairman) presiding. The CHAIRMAN. The committee will take up this morning bills which are unopposed and unobjected to that have been approved by the Veterans' Bureau and which, undoubtedly, must be passed through the House by unanimous consent. Mr. James O'Connor Roberts is here representing the Veterans' Bureau, and I will ask him to make a short explanation of the bills as they are called. We will first take up H. R. 368, introduced by Mr. Carter, a bill to extend medical and hospital relief to retired officers and enlisted men of the United States Coast Guard. Does the bureau approve of that bill, and will you state briefly what it does? STATEMENT OF JAMES O'CONNOR ROBERTS, UNITED STATES VETERANS' BUREAU Mr. ROBERTS. H. R. 368 is a bill to extend medical and hospital relief to retired officers and enlisted men of the United States Coast Guard. The bureau has no objection to this bill. As a matter of fact, up to a recent ruling of the Comptroller General, we were extending to these men the privileges of section 202-10 of the World War veterans' act, as amended, on the theory that these men were veterans of the World War, having served as members of the Coast Guard under the Navy Department during the late emergency. However, the Comptroller General ruled they were retired officers and, as such, not entitled to hospitalization. The bureau report, as I say, offers no objection to the passing of the amendment. It merely restores the privilege these men once had. Mrs. ROGERS. Mr. Roberts, was anything ever taken up with you on the question of hospitalizing the boys who did not really go into the service but were in the different camps-who were preparing, but who actually were not accepted into the service, although they went into training. Mr. ROBERTS. Mrs. Rogers, the members of the S. A. T. C. who were actually members of the organization are classified as enlisted men under Title I of the World War veterans' act. There are a class of men, however, who were under age for the S. A. T. C., but whom the War Department permitted to serve with the S. A. T. C.; they were given uniforms and served in the S. A. T. C. units, but they were never regular members of it for the reason they were be 1 |