Mr. ENGEL. You have here average foreign port fees, exclusive of wharfage, $700 per port for an average of five ports. Are not a lot of these ships coming from American ports, such as Guam, Saipan, and other places in the Pacific? General LARKIN. That is true. There would be no wharfage there. Mr. ENGEL. Are there any questions on project 461? CONVERSION AND MAINTENANCE OF RAIL FACILITIES Project 470, "Conversion and maintenance of rail facilities": The total program is $1,583,365, the amount appropriated, $1,252,210, amount deferred, nothing, and the balance required in 1949 is $331,155. Just what does that consist of? Colonel MARSHALL. In the total program there is contained the cost of the conversion of 118 hospital cars, which has been done, and the transportation costs of moving those cars over commercial rail lines. It also includes the conversion of six rail cars in Italy. Mr. KERR. These cars are used exclusively for the transportation of the dead, are they not? Colonel MARSHALL. Yes; that is right. MISCELLANEOUS CONTRACTUAL SERVICES Mr. ENGEL. Project 480, "Miscellaneous contractual services": The total program is $4,234,655; appropriated, $3,842,895; deferred, $391,760; and balance required for 1949, zero. Are there any questions on that project? PAYMENT OF BURIAL ALLOWANCES Project 490, "Payment of burial allowances": The total program is $8,922,825; appropriated, $2,961,900; deferred, $1,723,275; and balance required for the fiscal year 1949, $4,237,650. Will you say a word on that? Colonel MARSHALL. This project, sir, was originally estimated to cost $14,813,000, based on the number of bodies to be returned to the United States. Since the original estimate was made the number to be returned to the United States has been decreased from 229,000 to 170,748, resulting in a reduction of the estimate by $6,000,000. This covers the allowance to the next of kin, where burials are made in private cemeteries, at $75 per body. Mr. ENGEL. Per body? Colonel MARSHALL. Yes, sir. Mr. ENGEL. Are there any questions on that project? EXPENSES AT SEAT OF GOVERNMENT Project 710, "Expenses at seat of government": The total program is $854,502; the amount appropriated is $535,961, the amount deferred is $77,944, and the balance required for the fiscal year 1949 is $240,597. I see that you have adjusted your figures in pencil since you first started out. Colonel MARSHALL. Those adjustments were our bookkeeping entries in order to agree with the figures that the Bureau of the Budget had approved. It does not change the justification. It changes the type of expenditure made, but it does not change the over-all picture. Mr. ENGEL. It does not change the total? Colonel MARSHALL. No, sir. As you will note this project contains four different types of expenditures; first, communication service, which includes your telephone service and TWX machines in Washington, and the rental of office equipment in Washington, such as IBM machines, and the purchase of office supplies and the purchase of office equipment in Washington. The majority of the office supplies and equipment has been furnished from Army stocks. However, there are certain items in here which were not available from Army stocks. Mr. ENGEL. What you call Washington is what you call the seat of government? Colonel MARSHALL. That is right. Mr. CASE. How did you pursuade the Budget Bureau to give you $18,135 worth of office equipment more than you expected? Colonel MARSHALL. The reason for that, sir, is that they have taken from some other object of expenditure the $18,000 and have shown it as equipment. I have not checked the details, but we have the total figures which included certain expenditures, and they have made an adjustment as to $30,809 as reflected here. Mr. CASE. Suppose you put in the record just what that was. The adjustment to $38,735 was deemed necessary inasmuch as current trends in obligations for certain objects of expenditures were higher or lower than shown in the estimates, although total requirements for the project remained the same. Changes were effected, therefore, by increasing office equipment, 09, by $18,135 and office supplies, 08, by $600 and then making a corresponding decrease of $18,735 in rental of office equipment, 05. TOTAL NUMBER OF CIVILIAN EMPLOYEES Mr. ENGEL. I am wondering if we could get from you a table showing the total number of civilian employees of various types that you have engaged in this work. Colonel MARSHALL. Yes, sir. Mr. ENGEL. Would you put that in the record, showing the classification and the amount of pay of each type? Colonel MARSHALL. Yes, sir. Mr. ENGEL. I want everything, including the over-all number of employees that you have engaged in this type of service in one table. Place that in under the heading "Pay of civilians." Colonel MARSHALL. Yes, sir. (The matter referred to is as follows:) SALARIES AT SEAT OF GOVERNMENT Mr. ENGEL. Project 720, "Salaries at the seat of government": The total program is $7,296,479-appropriated, $4,079,000; deferred, $1,200,000, and the balance required for the fiscal year 1949, $2,017,479. Justify that. Colonel MARSHALL. This, Mr. Chairman, is for the payment of employees at the seat of government in Washington-the employees who supervise the repatriation program and who are charged with the receipt and dispatch of all correspondence pertaining to the deceased of World War II, including contact with the next of kin through agencies and our distribution centers, and the handling of a multitude of various types of correspondence which has grown up in this program. Mr. ENGEL. I note in 1947 you had 604 employees; in this present fiscal year, 1948, you have 876, and you are dropping down in 1949 to 715. Colonel MARSHALL. Yes, sir. Mr. ENGEL. Is that because the program has started tapering off? Colonel MARSHALL. That is because in 1949 the majority of these letters which we have to send out to next of kin will have been sent out. By that time we will be concerned with the answers coming in and the directives for overseas and the miscellaneous letters which must be written to next of kin who are still undecided. These people will be used to clean up that phase of the program. We expect the number of seat-of-government employees to decline as the field activities progress. Mr. ENGEL. What is grade 3, stenographers? Colonel MARSHALL. Yes, sir; and that is what you can hardly get in Washington. Those people were used to write these letters which went to the next of kin. Mr. ENGEL. They are written individually; are they? Colonel MARSHALL. Yes, sir; that is, partially. General HORKAN. They are written on an electric typewriter. You type in certain paragraphs in these letters and then your electric typewriter takes over and writes the rest of it. Mr. ENGEL. Thank you, gentlemen. |