OTHER CONTRACTUAL SERVICES

Mr. PHILLIPS. What are your other contractual services?

Mr. COMFORT. Repairs and alterations to buildings-certain costs we incurred in connection with hearings held by rent advisory boards. Mr. PHILLIPS. Is that just a figure put in, or do you anticipate that? Mr. Woods. I recall one hearing in Chicago that cost us $6,000 because they insisted on hiring the Civic Auditorium.

Mr. PHILLIPS. Who did?

Mr. Woods. The rent advisory board.

Mr. THOMAS. They are not going to force a liquidating agency with one more year of life to spend that much money.

Mr. Woods. There will be more of these hearings on decontrol, and they feel that they are entitled to use a court stenographer and they are entitled to hire a hall.

Mr. THOMAS. You are putting it on a local option basis. It is up to them to pay this expense. It is for their use and benefit.

Mr. Woods. They say, "Look, we are volunteer people. We are giving our time. We are entitled to space and stenographic help when we hold these hearings."

Mr. DUPREE. The act requires it.

Mr. THOMAS. Certainly there is no alteration money in there.

Mr. COMFORT. With reference to alterations, we are in a good bit of space in buildings leased by the Public Buildings Administration where they leased the whole building, for the use of governmental agencies, and we pay a certain percentage. They bill us. We have nothing to do with the cost of alteartions. We may be in the building only a month or two or then we also have to pay certain costs in cases where we have to restore the premises to their original condition when we leased them. That is something else we have no control over. The Public Building Services have authority.

Mr. THOMAS. How much alteration money is in this $126,000, and how much hearing money?

Mr. COMFORT. I do not have an exact breakdown on it. Part of it is just based on experience in any event, but there is about $20,000 in there for possible expenses of holding hearings. The rest of it represents alterations, fees of witnesses, which is another item that cannot be definitely ascertained, and so forth. Everything falls in that $126,000 that is not covered elsewhere.

Mr. THOMAS. Give us an idea of the items that go in to make up the $126,000.

Mr. COMFORT. There is $40,000, approximately, for repairs and alterations and restoration; the balance of it is just an estimated figure. We pay witness fees all the time.

Mr. THOMAS. Break it down. Fees for witnesses so much. So much for stenographic reporting services, and so forth.

Mr. COMFORT. As I recall, there is about $15,000 in there for fees for witnesses.

Mr. THOMAS. Where is the other $51,000?

Mr. MADIGAN. He may not have all the details.

Mr. THOMAS. Does anyone have them here?

Mr. MADIGAN. Not with us, but we can insert the information in the record.

(The information is as follows:)

Repairs and alterations (office space)..

$40,000

Expenses in connection with hearings conducted by local rent advisory boards.

15,000

Witness fees in litigation cases.

16, 800

Newspapers and periodicals___

Janitor and custodial services_

Repairs to equipment__.

Dun & Bradstreet reports - - -

Stenographic reporting, furnishing of transcripts of proceedings, etc...

Restoration of office space under lease liability.

2, 500

1, 500

20, 000

15, 000

7,000

7, 500

Maintenance and servicing of Government-owned cars_

1, 200

Total..

126, 500

SUPPLIES AND MATERIALS

Mr. PHILLIPS. The other item is supplies and material, which is again twice as high as the previous year, and then there is nothing for equipment. How do you explain and estimate the cost of $94,000 for supplies and material?

Mr. COMFORT. Because we were well stocked with supplies and materials at the beginning of the fiscal year 1950 and we did not buy hardly any for the first 6 months. During the latter 6 months we were forced to stop buying and we borrowed and switched supplies around from closed offices until we have reached the point that there just is not any more available and practically every office in the field is out of supplies. To start out, we have to buy a lot of supplies. Mr. THOMAS. Thank you gentlemen very much.

FRIDAY, JULY 14, 1950.

DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE

MARITIME ACTIVITIES

WITNESSES

EARL W. CLARK, ACTING DEPUTY ADMINISTRATOR

CHARLES H. McGUIRE, CHIEF, DIVISION OF CONTRACT EVALUA-
TION AND ADMINISTRATION

CAPTAIN M. I. GOODMAN, DIVISION OF VESSEL CUSTODY
H. M. HOCHFELD, BUDGET OFFICER

VESSEL OPERATING FUNCTIONS

Mr. THOMAS. Before Mr. Phillips takes up the item we have before us for the Maritime Administration, I should like to say that it is nice to have with us Mr. Clark, the Acting Deputy Administrator, and the three oldtimers, Mr. McGuire, Captain Goodman, and Mr. Hochfeld. You are appearing in connection with a language provision as submitted in House Document No. 640 which would continue available $1,570,000 for alterations to the steamship General M. C. Meigs.

Before we discuss the item we have before us, Mr. Phillips and I have been talking about the status of your laid-up cargo fleet.

PRECAUTIONS AGAINST SABOTAGE OF RESERVE FLEET

Considering the condition the world is in now, what is your thinking with reference to the future use of the fleet, its present condition with reference to availability for immediate use and last, but by no means least, your security force at the yards where the fleets are located? Will you give us a little information as to those three points, Mr. Clark?

Mr. CLARK. Mr. Chairman, I think I should say at the outset that, as Acting Deputy Maritime Administrator, I have been on duty just a very short while and for that reason ask the committee to permit me to refer questions to the people here who have specialized in those activities.

Mr. THOMAS. Handle it any way you wish, Mr. Clark.

Mr. CLARK. I am aware of the activities that have been carried on with regard to the points you have mentioned. With particular reference to the security which has been thrown around the reserve fleet, I might take a few moments to give to the committee what I have to say on that subject and ask Mr. McGuire if he has any further comments.

When the hostilities overseas became acute one of the first things we did was to go into the question of the security of the fleet in terms of possible sabotage at these various locations. We contacted the Coast Guard with the request that they throw around the fleet such services as they might have in the way of giving protection to them. Just this week we received a reply in some detail of the action which the Coast Guard had taken in directing the various Coast Guard units throughout the areas in which the reserve fleets are located to cooperate with our guards. We felt that their instructions were quite complete so far as they could go in terms of their own available funds and facilities. At the same time we issued an instruction through our Office of Maritime Operations, again quite in detail, instructing the operators of the patrol boats, and alerting them with respect to any possible sabotage activities. We are now reviewing both of those instructions, those issued by the Coast Guard and those which we have issued to see whether or not the facilities are adequate. In addition to that

Mr. THOMAS. If I may interrupt you at that point, Mr. Clark, what are you doing now that you were not doing 3 months ago? Let us put it that way. Orders do not get a job done.

Mr. CLARK. In direct answer to that, sir, other than to alert the staff and to call upon the Coast Guard when they are patrolling these areas to furnish such assistance as they can give by best rerouting their patrol boats, as of today, not much more.

We have been in contact with the United States marshals to see whether or not we might get protection from that source around certain of these areas, and without very much success because the guards who work under the marshals are located in different counties and different jurisdictions than the fleet locations. We are pursuing that further to see whether or not the United States Marshal's Office can possibly detail additional guards.

Mr. THOMAS. Let me make a suggestion. You gave us the answer that we were afraid, in advance, we were going to get. You ought, not only to double but maybe triple your own guard force, and if you

That is No. 1.

do not have the money with which to do it, we shall do something about it. But you ought not to wait any later than the sun goes down to do that. That is No. 1. No. 2: You ought not merely to call on the Navy, but you ought to say to the Navy that they should put a detachment of marines at each one of these installations on the land side, and I think the Navy will put patrol boats in there. There is no reason in the world why they should not. They have them. And you ought to insist that that be done, and it ought to be done before the sun goes down.

Mr. CLARK. Thank you, sir.

Mr. PHILLIPS. Who is responsible for the protection of these vessels, Mr. Clark? Does that responsibility rest with you?

Mr. CLARK. Yes, sir.

Mr. PHILLIPS. It does rest with the Navy?

Mr. CLARK. It rests with the Maritime Administration to protect the fleet. But at the same time we are calling upon all other sources to assist in the protection of the fleet. I was going to comment on that point. We have been dealing with the Navy on this problem. I shall relate, sir, your comments to the Administrator as a result of this meeting.

Mr. THOMAS. Let us get something started. We do not want to wake up around here after it is too late, while you have been issuing directives and chewing the thing over. Let us get some action and let us get it today. We could very easily find ourselves in the same shape we were in in 1940, so far as our fleet is concerned-without a fleet.

Mr. Phillips, will you proceed with your examination?
Had you finished your statement, Mr. Clark?

Mr. CLARK. I had, unless the chairman of the committee would like to know what the present situation is with regard to the patrol boats.

Mr. THOMAS. We are familiar with that.
Mr. CLARK. Very well, sir.

STATUS OF MARITIME ADMINISTRATION UNDER REORGANIZATION PLAN

Mr. PHILLIPS. What is the status of your agency now? You are connected with the Department of Commerce. Is yours a division? Mr. CLARK. If I understand your question, sir, you are referring to the Division that is here before you today?

Mr. PHILLIPS. I am referring to the connection of the Maritime Administration with the Department of Commerce.

Mr. CLARK. We call ourselves the Maritime Administration. Under that are various offices under the reorganized plan. Again under that there are various divisional offices, separate and apart from the Board which acts independently.

REAPPROPRIATION REQUEST

Mr. PHILLIPS. You are asking today for a reappropriation of money already appropriated which would have expired on June 30, in the amount of $1,570,000.

A statement in explanation of the need for this money is contained in detail in the hearings on the deficiency bill of 1949, and I think it would be well for purposes of this hearing, to include that in the record at this point.

Mr. THOMAS. That may be done.

(The matter referred to is as follows:)

REPAIRS TO "GENERAL MEIGS"

Mr. THOMAS. What is this $1,600,000 for, referred to in the justifications as repairs to the General Meigs? What are you going to do with the $1,600,000? Mr. MARSHALL. That vessel is to replace the General Gordon, which is now operating under charter to the American President Lines. The vessel has been operating on Coast Guard waivers involving considerable safety deficiencies. And, the Commission has felt that it is its duty to the charterer to bring the vessel up to the Coast Guard standards. And the proposal here is to bring the General Meigs, which was built for a transport, up to Coast Guard standards. There will be no improvement on the vessel with respect to the passenger accommodations; the work will be confined exclusively to the safety features. The Coast Guard supports this request very strongly.

Mr. THOMAS. If my memory serves me correctly we gave you quite a bit of money previously. What was that for?

Mr. MARSHALL. You gave us $5,000,000, Mr. Thomas, to bring the General Richardson up to the Coast Guard standards and also to improve her as a passenger vessel.

Mr. THOMAS. And in addition to that there was some 5.5 to 6 million dollars also for some three or four vessels that you wanted to reconvert and make passenger-carrying vessels out of them to be used perhaps in the Mediterranean service to bring back refugees.

Mr. MARSHALL. I think you refer, Mr. Thomas, to the so-called troop class of vessels, and the money that you gave us for that was used to the extent of about $375,000 per ship to bring these vessels up to the United States Coast Guard standards.

(Off record discussion.)

Mr. THOMAS. Was the General Meigs a Navy ship, or an Army ship, or was it constructed by the Maritime Commission?

Mr. MARSHALL. It was constructed by the Maritime Commission as a troop transport.

Mr. THOMAS. Is she under charter?

The

Mr. MARSHALL. The General Gordon, the first ship, is under charter. General Meigs is to replace the General Gordon which is now under charter to the American President Lines.

Mr. THOMAS. Do you have a prospective charter for the General Meigs?

Mr. MARSHALL. We want to substitute the General Meigs, after bringing it up to the Coast Guard standards, for the General Gordon, which does not at this time meet the Coast Guard standards.

Mr. ANDREWS. You do need both?

Mr. MARSHALL. We would have a prospective charter for the General Gordon, if she is brought up to Coast Guard standards.

Mr. THOMAS. Where would the ship run; trans-Pacific?

Mr. MELLEN. Trans-Pacific.

Mr. THOMAS. How long do you think the General Meigs will be under charter if you get her in class?

Mr. MARSHALL. The American President Lines has found the vessel very satisfactory for their trade, and we believe that until such time as new vessels, are built by the American President Lines that they will continue to charter at least one P-2.

Mr. THOMAS. What is the charter fee on this vessel, or what will it be after you spend the $1,600,000 on it?

Mr. MARSHALL. The charter hire on a P-2 is approximately $49,000 per month.

Mr. THOMAS. What has been the amount of money you have received from the General Meigs say from recent period in the calendar year 1949?