Evening star., 1933-10-26
SHIP QUIZ CENTERS
ON HOOVER NAMES
Pearsa|| Denies Seeing Mel
Ion-0therS Talked to
Cabinet Members.
BY The Associated Press.

BY The Associated Press.
The investigation by special Senate
committee of ocean mail contracts
turned again yesterday toward the
names of former President Hoover and
several Of his cabinet
Taking up the Colombian Steamship
Co. Chairman Black closely questioned
c: H: c. Pearsall. vice president as to
whether he had conferred with Andrew
Mellon. then Secretary of the Treasury.
during negotiations for purchase OF
ships from the Shipping Board. Pear
sail said he did not see Mellon or any
one representing him.
The questioning centered on the
purchase by the Colombian company
of the steamship Haiti from the Gov
ernment for $4,000 and its sale a
couple of years later, in 1928, to the
Ocean Dominion Steamship Corpora
tion. known as the Aluminium Line. for
minimum considerations totaling $685.
OO0
The committee chairman said the
Government paid S1,000,000 for the
vessel and spent more than the $4,000
Colombian purchase price in repairs.
Agreement Reported.
lie COullIlllJtc Out llldI al
agreement to stay out of competition
with the Ocean Dominion Line for a
specified time was part OF the sales
contract.
Before turning to the Colombian
company the committee questioned
H. H. Bond former Assistant Secretary
of the Treasury. on his activities in
support of the Black Diamond Steam
ship Co.'S fight with the United States
Lines for purchase of the Black Dia-
mond vessels from the Shipping Board.
Earlier in the hearings a letter was
produced in which bond wrote Mr..
Diamond should be given preference.
Bond yesterday identified letters
written as member OF law firm
representing J. E. Dockendorff, presi-
dent of the Black Diamond, to Ira
Campbell, counsel for the Steamship
Owners Association and chairman of
the special committee MIR. Hoover had
appointed to study Government ship
sales. In the letters. Bond questioned
the financial fitness of the United
States Lines to take over the Black
Diamond vessels.
Conferred With Lamont.
Bond said he conferred with Robert
p Lamont, then Secretary of Com
, merce, and Walter Brown, then Post
master General. before he delivered the
/ letter telling why the Black Diamond
should be given preference personally
| to the President. He told the commit
: tee he worked only as an attorney and
did not lobby or use influence"
The committee learned from PearSall
that his company had sold a boat in
, october. 1882, to the Colombian govern
, ment, for SAT 500. He denied knowledge
. Of the purpose Of the purchase other
. than that he understood they had
some business for 1t on the Amazon
River" 1t was about this time Colon
! bia and Peru were fighting over the
Leticia incident.
Pearsall's testimony also developed
/ that the Colombian line, the United
Fruit and W. R. Grace companies were
J in a pooling arrangement for number
of years in the Colombian shipping
Asked by Black II that was to stabilize
rates." Pearsall replied it had that
tendency"
He testified that year or so after
the Colombian line obtained mail con-
! tract, in 1880, it received $3.50 ,O00
: loan from the United Fruit Co. to build
! to new ships and that payments on the
ships we're "a little less" than that
amount
He reported that mail revenue from
1880 through March, 1888, to MS COM
panv totaled S944839.
The committee also developed yester-
day that a large part OF the Docken-
dorff interests was controlled by A. Ise-
lin g. Co. his bankers, and that 1sel1n
had contract rights to remove any en-
ployes of the Dockendorff Co. except
Dockendorff himself.