Mr. Ross. That is correct. So we anticipate what will be needed for our contribution to these funds is approximately $11,000,000 broken down as follows: Approximately five-million-dollar-odd for the 1946 budget and six-million-dollar-odd for our contribution to the working capital fund.

Mr. STEFAN. That is merely for 1946 and exclusive of any purchasing of property.

Mr. Ross. That has nothing to do with purchasing property. Mr. STEFAN. Will you get into that? What estimates have been made as to the future?

Mr. Ross. No estimate, to my knowledge, has been made. The reason no estimates have been made is that no decision has yet been reached as to exactly what piece of property it will be, how large it will be, and exactly where it will be located, and so on.

Mr. STEFAN. Have there been any discussions of the probable amount that the United States will contribute?

Mr. Ross. No, sir.

Mr. STEFAN. It is assumed, however, that the cost of the property will be apportioned among all the participating nations?

Mr. Ross. That is right.

Mr. STEFAN. These negotiations are yet to come up.

Mr. Ross. Yes, sir.

If you are interested, I might give you a brief estimate of how that is likely to develop.

Mr. STEFAN. You may insert that in the record.

Mr. Ross. Yes, sir.

(The information follows:)

The United Nations General Assembly recently voted to establish interim headquarters in New York City pending determination of a site for permanent headquarters somewhere within the Westchester County, N. Y., and Fairfield County, Conn., area.

A headquarters commission of representatives of nine member governments of the United Nations has been established to study alternative sites within this relatively large area. They will make a report on their findings to the next General Assembly meeting which is scheduled to convene on September 3.

It is anticipated that this commission will undertake its work in the near future. The commission will be expected to work very closely and painstakingly with representatives of State, county, and local authorities as well as with representative of the Federal Government.

In addition to considering alternative locations within the Westchester-Fairfield area the commission will concern itself with the problem of exactly how much property will actually be required. The commission's terms of reference authorize it to consider alternative locations ranging in size from 2 to 40 square miles.

·

Full account will be taken of the rights and interests of residents in the area. In this connection, a resolution passed unanimously by the headquarters committee of the General Assembly reads as follows:

"Considering that appropriate assurance should be given to the residents and neighbors of the site finally chosen as the permanent headquarters of the United Nations in the United States, to the effect that this selection will not cause injustice to be done to them, it is resolved that the United Nations shall give all due and friendly consideration to any problems that may arise in connection with the possible displacement of residents or with tax revenue and other problems affecting the localities involved when a final decision is taken with regard to the permanent headquarters of the United Nations." The nations represented on the Headquarters Commission are Australia, Uruguay, China, France, Iraq, Netherlands, United Kingdom, Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, and Yugoslavia.

After a decision has been made by the General Assembly at its September meeting plans will be developed for the necessary buildings project. No determinations have yet been made as to the number or kinds of buildings needed, as to how building plans will be developed and executed, or as to the time required for the development of this project. It is reasonable to assume that at least a year or 18 months will pass before such determinations can finally be made.

It is very difficult to predict at this time how long actual construction will take and equally difficult to predict the probable cost of United Nations buildings. Final decisions in this regard will be made by appropriate United Nations bodies, and representatives of the United States Government will, of course, participate in the making of such decisions.

OFFICE OF PUBLIC AFFAIRS

FEBRUARY 20, 1946.

STATEMENTS OF FRANCIS H. RUSSELL, ACTING DIRECTOR, AND E. WILDER SPAULDING, CHIEF, DIVISION OF RESEARCH AND PUBLICATIONS

Mr. RABAUT. We will now take up the Office of Public Affairs which appears on page 20 of the justifications. Under this item appears the Division of Public Liaison and the Division of Research and Publications. The total number of regular employees is 250. There is an increase of 102 positions at a cost of $311,591, or a total cost of 352 people of $1,085,792.

Mr. KURTH. Mr. Francis H. Russell is the Acting Director of the Office of Public Affairs. He is here to discuss primarily the Division of Public Liaison and the office itself.

We also have Mr. Wilder Spaulding who is Chief of the Division of Research and Publications. We brought these two gentlemen up here to explain the rather sizeable increase that appears in that division.

Mr. RABAUT. Rather sizeable is correct. We will hear from Mr. Francis H. Russell,

Now, Mr. Russell, you are Acting Director of the Office of Public Affairs?

Mr. F. H. RUSSELL, Yes.

Mr. RABAUT. How long have you been in the Department?

Mr. F. H. RUSSELL. Since July 1941.

Mr. RABAUT. What is your background?

Mr. F. H. RUSSELL. Before I came to the Department I was a lawyer in Boston from 1929 to 1941.

Mr. RABAUT. Where did you go to school?

Mr. F. H. RUSSELL. Tufts College and Harvard Law School.

Mr. RABAUT. When did you enter the Government service?

Mr. F. H. RUSSELL. 1941.

Mr. RABAUT. In the State Department?

Mr. F. H. RUSSELL. For 3 months I was in the Rockefeller Office of Inter-American Affairs when the proclaimed list and related economic warfare work was lodged in Mr. Rockefeller's office.

Then, in July, that work was transferred to the State Department, and I joined the Department at that time.

Mr. RABAUT. Tell us about the office of which you are the Acting Director, this Office of Public Affairs.

GENERAL STATEMENT

Mr. F. H. RUSSELL. The Office of Public Affairs has two divisions, one the old-line Division of Research and Publications. Mr. Spaulding, the Chief of that, is here and will talk about that. The other is the Division of Public Liaison.

DIVISION OF PUBLIC LIAISON

The Division of Public Liaison has been in existence for about 2 years, and it came into existence as the result of the terrific demand on the part of the people outside the Department for information about this Government's foreign policy and the demand that they be given an opportunity to express their views. The opinion was current among the public that up to that time American foreign policy in many aspects had been carried on by a small group that was frequently referred to as a "closed corporation," or some people in an ivory tower in Washington on Pennsylvania Avenue, and that the American people had no opportunity to make their views known to the people making these decisions, or the opportunity to know what the policies were, or what the reasons were that led to the formation of those policies.

Mr. HARE. What a reflection on their representatives.

Mr. F. H. RUSSELL. What I think they wanted and still want is an opportunity to discuss with the people in the Department who are working on a day-to-day basis with various kinds of problems in the international field some of the aspects of those problems, where the developments are, and particularly a chance to make their views known before the decision is made. That was particularly apparent in connection with the UNO.

At Dumbarton Oaks this Government participated with other nations, the principal powers, in formulating some recommendations, and as soon as those were made public there was a great deal of interest in them all over the country. People wanted to have certain changes made. They wanted to know the reasons why the particular clauses in the Charter were the way they were, and that finally led to the appointment of some consultants who represented 42 national organizations, consultants to the American delegation to the conference at San Francisco.

The Division of Public Liaison and the Office of Public Affairs were created by Secretary Hill, and John Dickey who was appointed President of Dartmouth College last September, was the first Director of the Office of Public Affairs.

It has operated in various fields. One of the things it does is to summarize for the benefit of the policy officers in the Department newspaper editorials, comments of people who talk over the radio, the commentators, the columnists. It follows the various public opinion polls, and prepares summaries of what public opinion is on various matters in the international field, for use by the Secretary and his principal advisers so that they can know as accurately and as scientifically as possible what public feeling is in any of the matters that they are dealing with.

Then there is another group in the division that works with national organizations. There are about 150 national organizations

that have committees on international relations, or which are primarily as an organization interested in foreign policy.

Mr. RABAUT. Right there, now, are those groups for this department or are they opposed to it?

Mr. F. H. RUSSELL. They differ. There are all shades of opinion. Mr. RABAUT. I asked that questions because I have some information on the matter.

Mr. RUSSELL. There are some who are for the Department and some who are against it. There are some for some of the policies that the Department has espoused in the past and against some other policies. Mr. RABAUT. What effect do they have on you? How do you handle them? What do you do with them?

Mr. F. H. RUSSELL. Those inquiries are incorporated into the reports made to the Secretary and the members of his principal committees. They are one of the ways in which public opinion can be sized up.

They come in in the form of letters; they come in in the form of resolutions; and there are officers of these organizations that ask to have some time with the Secretary or with one of his principal assistants. Occasionally they ask if they can have a meeting with officers of the Department working in a particular field.

Mr. RABAUT. If you received an avalanche of mail at the time of the activity at San Francisco that was favorable to it, you would regard that as the pulse of the Nation?

Mr. F. H. RUSSELL. Not at all; you have to take into account the nature of the mail. They are in many instances pressure campaigns. You sometimes get a large number of cards all saying the same thing. Mr. RABAUT. And all printed?

Mr. F. H. RUSSELL. At other times you will get letters written by housewives, or by returning veterans, or by people who have obviously been deeply moved by some kind of situation, and they want to write in and tell the Secretary they do not understand why he did this or that, or think it was splendid that this or that was done, or they want to ask a question so that they can clarify their thinking.

Mr. RABAUT. Those letters are all answered?

Mr. F. H. RUSSELL. We answer all those letters; yes.

Mr. RABAUT. As the Department's policy crystallizes will there be a lessening of the work in your division?

Mr. F. H. RUSSELL. I do not think so. So long as international relations are as important as they have become during the last few years, and the interest of large groups of the public is as great as it is, I would think this work would continue to be important.

Mr. RABAUT. You are asking for how many people?

Mr. F. H. RUSSELL. In the Division of Public Liaison a total of 102.

Mr. RABAUT. Twenty-one additional?

Mr. F. H. RUSSELL. Twenty-one additional.

Mr. RABAUT. On what ground do you justify the 21 additional people?

Mr. F. H. RUSSELL. In my opinion, they are justified on the ground of the number of inquiries that are made, the interest that is being shown, and the burden that is being placed upon the Department.

Mr. RABAUT. What is the increase in your correspondence?

Mr. F. H. RUSSELL. At the present time it is running about 400 letters a day. That includes mail from the White House on matters of foreign affairs that are referred to the State Department for answering.

Mr. RABAUT. You are taking care of these 400 letters a day with 81 people?

Mr. F. H. RUSSELL. That is only a small portion of the work of the Division. There are about 20 or 21 people in the Division that handle the mail. They are badly behind. That is one of the reasons for the request for additional positions. The average daily mail is 400. At the time of the UNO Conference it was running at the rate of about 5,000 a day.

Mr. RABAUT. You have peaks.

Mr. F. H. RUSSELL. Very decided peaks, depending on whether there is some matter up in the international field in which people are particularly interested and want information about.

DIVISION OF RESEARCH AND PUBLICATION

Mr. RABAUT. We will now get to the next item, Division of Research and Publication. The Department has asked for a very large increase in this diviison.

Mr. Spaulding, your justification will have to ring the bell, so start in.

Mr. SPAULDING. I hope that will not be impossible, because we know that we need every single one of these people.

As you know, Mr. Chairman, our primary job is making information available in the field of foreign relations to the officials that need it and to the public. That is done in printed form.

We accomplish that through research and compilation. We do it through publication. We do it through advice and information on treaties, and we do it through the Department of State library.

One of our branches is the Treaty Branch. Last year there were 210 treaties and agreements, many of them multilateral agreements that required relationships with a large number of governmentsformalities in drafting, in signing, formalities in handling every step in treaty procedures. The best example is the Chicago civil aviation. agreement. There were 210 of those treaties and agreements last year on which our Treaty Branch worked.

In the two preceding years the average was 92. That means that the Treaty Branch is concentrating on day-by-day current problems. They are losing their foundation of analysis and research so that when-and I think that I can say this-Justice Jackson wanted to be documented on treaties for his Nuernberg trials, it took weeks of work and a large proportion of our staff to dig that material out. That should not be necessary.

The Department of State should be well documented on every American treaty and agreement. We are trying to do that very effectively.

This folder [indicating] is half of the documentation on the Chicago Civil Aviation Convention, which is typical of the job that we are trying to do for ready reference on every American commitment in the international field.