Evening star., 1941-03-18

a
The House Appropriations Com
mittee presented Congress with a
tersely worded alternative today to
give quick approval to the s7,0O0.-
900 British-aid bill or let the
United States be stamped "a falter-
ing welsher."
The committee acted with speed,
after hearing Secretary of State
Hull, in testimony made public to-
day, advise "full-out" aid for coun-
tries resisting aggression lest would
be conquerors" get a chance to deal
with the United States "as they
have been dealing with Europe and
Asia"
A grinly dramatic note was added
to the proceedings as House debate
on the measure started by reports
that Nazi U-boat was en- route to
American waters and by this asser-
tlon in London by Prime Minister
Churchill: Not only German u
boats, but German battle cruisers
have crossed to the American side
OF the Atlantic and have already
sunk some of our independently
routed ships not sailing in CONVOY"
The Appropriations Committee
asked that President Roosevelt's
recommendation for the expendi-
ture be approved with a single
change and rephrasing of another
section.
Proposed Change.
The change would provide that
any defense article procured with
the $1,000, 900 900 should be retained
by Government department at the
discretion of the President, instead
OF being disposed Of directly to Q
foreign government.
The committee said on this point:
obviously, if our own need at
any point in the program should
precipitously become more impor-
tant than the furnishing of aid to
country whose defense the Presi-
dent had deemed vital to the de-
tense of the United States, the right
should exist to retain and use for
our own immediate necessities such
defense articles as the President
should consider would best serve our
own interests
At the same time the committee
redrafted a section which would
permit the President to transfer
funds in the bill to departments
which dispose of defense materials,
Unanimous Approval Reported.
The committee was reported to
have approved the bill unanimously,
after defeating efforts to cut the
total to $4,000, 100000 and $780,
100000 and motion to raise the
fund 10 $4,000, 100000.
Members said another motion de-
feated would have limited use Of
the funds to two years from date Of
enactment of the bill, rather than
to June 80, 1943.
Speaker Rayburn told his press
conference that 1T would be mighty
fine psychology if the House passed
the measure practically unani-
mously tomorrow. He predicted that
there won't be very many votes
against it."
The committee noted that the
amount carried in the bill plus au-
thority in the basic law to dispose
Of a maximum of $1,000 OOO. 900
worth of existing materials, made
the total available for British aid
$4,000 100000.
The committee provided that the
President may reimburse, from the
$1,000, 100000 fund, any department
for the value of defense articles II
disposes of.
Would Reduce Ceiling.
This transfer provision, to the
extent it is availed of, will operate
to reduce the ceiling of $500, ,OOO,.
000," the committee report said.
For example, if the entire ST..
300, 900, 900 in value of defense arti-
cles should be disposed of under the
law and the President should de-
termine that $500,00O,O0O should be
transferred to the furnishing agen-
cies for replacement purposes, the
ceiling of aid becomes a Total of
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