Evening star., 1948-09-30
Purchasing
Continued From First Page.>

Uniting plrctAses efstypss of cloth
, ing and some equipment which the
) Army declared surplus to its needs
only a short time ago, said in an
interview that the reserves had been
cut back to alleviate civilian Short
ages.
I'VE knew at the time that we
were depicting our stocks below the
standard standby necessary for
maintaining our calculated strength
through the middle of next year,
he said.
Rear Admiral E. D. Foster, chief
of the Navy Bureau of Supplies and
Accounts, had much the same eX-
PLANTATION for that services repur-
chase of items it declared surplus
some of them within seven months.
The admirals statement main
tanned that very meager amounts OF
clothing have been purchased for the
Navy in comparison with wartime
procurements, but he failed to give
the amounts of such repurchases.
During the war, the Navy supplied
some 3,500,000 officers and men.
Since demobilization, its strength
has remained around 100000.
It was before the Mead commit
tee. more or less the predecessor Of
the Ferguson committee as far as
duties are concerned, that Gen.
Courtney H. Hodges laid an Army
strategic reserve plan under
which materials and equipment for
100000 men through June, 1S49,
were to be held from wartime stocks.
h Meanwhile, Senate committee
aides said several Senator's have ex-
pressed interest in the armed forces
stock control systems and indHa-
tions are that the group will go into
this, if it decides on full-scaie
| INQUIRY, Mr.. Royal said lack OF
nroper stock control could not be
blamed on the Army's purchases.
The Army was making surplus
declarations as late as June. In
. that month it turned over to the
} War Assets Administration 81, l,l94,ooo
. worth of property, including $92l 'ooo
worth of tents. goggles valued al
: s12 900. and $4,000 worth OF bar
/ racks bags. One such bag Will oe
2 given each draftee when he reports
! beginning in November.
During the same month the Army
vithdrew from WAA S2l5,000 worth
2 of consumer goods, including $2oI'-
S 900 worth of portfolio writing sets'
! For the whole of 194S the quar-
r termaster Corps estimated 1t de-
), clared some SlO,OO0,O00 worth OF
S civilian type goods surplus to lts
= needs and withdrew $2o ,OOo,ooo
, worth. The l947 declarations totaled
s53.426 900. and the Withdrawals
SAT, ,28O 900. but the Army wltnore"
: 0nlv sS5 900 900 worth Of civilian
. type goods in 194546, and declared
J as surplus consumer items valued
: at s615,0o0,o00.
The Mead committee was es-
: pecially interested in the fact tnat
the Army's original reserve plan
f called for storing 5000, 900 blankets
' The Hodges Board reduced TINS
. storage item to 100000, and the
balance was sold to the public.
The Quartermaster Corps plans
! no purchasing of blankets during
= the current fiscal year. but can
/ make no promises as to the future.
The Navy, on the other hand. re-
= ports that its blankets are currently
E in critically short supply" Blan-
S kets. as with some many other
: ordinary. everyday items used by
= the armed forces, are not inter-
= changeable between them. because
S the Army uses brown, the Navy
= blue and the Marine Corps a third
color.
While the Army and Navy are
paying one-third more today fol