The Wilmington morning star., 1947-05-22
FI)R
Continued From Page One)

Brewster, as chairman OF the
Senate War Investigating commit
tee, has sought to get any Roose-
welt papers which may have a
bearing on a committee investi-
cation of Navy purchase of Arabian
oil. The Senator cited the memo
randum as b%olstering his argu-
ment that the committee should
be allowed to check over the pa
pers.
He said he considered it signifi-
cant that the wartime President
recognized a distinction between
personal files and non-personal,
official files. Mr.. Roosevelt stipula-
ted that in the event of his death
they were to be classified bya COM
mittee made up of Samuel l. Rosen
man, Harry L. Hopkins (now dead
and Grace G. Tully, his White
House secretary.
Brewster said the responsibility
for deciding which files are to be
made public should not rest with
three private individuals desig-
mated in the memorandum, but
with the members of the Senate
committee whose official capacity
renders them more capable to de-
eide the issue of relevancy of the
documents as it applies to the
current investigations
The committee is looking into
assertions by James A. Moefett,
Gil man and former Federal Hous-
ing administrator, that the Navy
rejected tenders of oil from the
Persian Gulf area in 1941, only to
buy it four years later at a price
two or three times as high. The
Senators have been unable to in
spect all the documents they be-
lieve bear OF the transaction.
Memorandum Text
The text of Mr.. Roosevelt's l943
memorandum, addressed to the
director of the Franklin D. Roose-
Welt library. 1t follows:
81. Before any Of my personal
or confidential files are transfer
red to the library at Hyde Park,
l wish to go through them and Sc
lect those which are v to be
made public, those which should
be sealed for a prescribed period
of time before they are made pub
lie; and those which are strictly
matters, to be retained by
my family. If by reason OF death
incapacity I am unable to do
this, I wish that function to be
performed by a committee of
three, namely. Samuel I. Rose
man. Harry L. Hopkins and Grace
G. Tully. or the survivors thereof.
SO. With respect to the file
known as famous peoples file,
the same procedure should be fol-
Those which are officia,
may be turned over to the
library, but those which are in eff
feet personal such as, for example,
the longhand letters between the
King of England and myself. or
between Cardinal Mundelein and
myself, are to be retained by me
or my estate and should never be
made public. There are many
such examples and this committee
will do the selecting, in the event
that I am unable to do so Cor the
above mentioned reasons.
80. With respect to the file call
ed family letters in the main
they are to be retained by me or
my estate. However, the commit
tee should have the discretion of
a few which in their
could be given to the
and made public.
Designates Seal
"a. In all of the papers which
are to be turned over to The lob
rary from my personal tiles or
from non-personal, official files,
there will be some which should
not be published until a lapse of a
certain length of time and which.
In the meantime, should be put I'M
der seal. This is for the reason
that they may refer to people who
are still alive in a way which
would be embarrassing to them.
The aforesaid committee of three
should determine which letters
should be SO sealed and the length
Ct time Of sealing. I should judge
that the average length Of time
should be from ten to twenty
years, but there may be some
which should be sealed for as
many as fifty years.
uErank1ip n R~oosevelt