Evening star., 1949-04-14
Hoover Group Insists
Army Padded Budget,
Denies Misstafements
Dr. fhs Asseeiuisd Press


Striking back at Army criticism,
o Hoover Commission task force
defiantly insisted today that the
Army had padded its original 1850
budget requests.
The subcommittee Of the Gov
ernment reorganization group
fatty denied that its report on the
National Military Establishment
contained 10 "misstatements of
fact" as alleged by Secretary of
the Army Royal.
1t said the Army's comments
disputing the task force findings
actually confirm the committees
report in every instance and in
practically every detail"
For example. 1t said, its report
that the Armyahad once asked
for funds to modernize 102 more
tanks than 1t possessed" was alb
solutely true. The task force said
the discrepancy wasn't noted until
its own investigators pointed it
out.
Clerical Error Cited.
It said much the same thing
about a clerical error which added
100000, 900 to another Army bud
get figure.
The commission. headed by for
mer President Hoover. based a
series of recommendations for
Government changes partly on
the reports of its task forces.
The task force on the military
establishment handed in. its report
in November. Mr.. Royal followed
up in March with a letter to Mr..
Hoover asking that the 40 mis-
statements" be corrected.
The task force point-by-point
rebuttal, along with Mr.. Royals
letter, was made public today by
Ferdinand Eberstadt. former mem
Der of the War Production Board
who headed the Hoover subcom-
mittee.
Support Claimed for Finding.
In a covering letter to Mr..
Hoover, Mr.. Eberstadt said the
Army comments In fact support
the committee finding that "the
Army's budget requests. as origi-
nally submitted to the Secretary OF
Defense, were on a highly inflated
basis which bore little apparent
relation to the Presidents ceiling
or to any strategic plan"
On almost every one OF the 10
points, the task force reply to the
Army opened with some such
words as "the Army does not chal-
lenge the facts as stated by the
committee" and closed with:
There is no misstatement OF fact
in this matter by the committee. F"
In some cases, the task force
claimed the Army was presenting
new information to justify the old
budget requests. In others. the
Hoover subcommittee insisted that
the military comment was not
sticking to the point.
Army Demurs.
Mr.. Royal said the Army did
not question points on which there
are "honest differences Of opin-
ion," adding: I'm other instances,
however it is felt that the testi-
mony of Army representatives was
not properly recorded or inter-
preted by the committee repre-
sentative"
Attached to his letter were 40
misstatements Of fact and the
comments Of the Army with refer
ence to EACH" He asked Mr.. Hoo
yer to correct its report on those
10 points.
One of theh concerned this task
force statement: "The Army's
original budgetary requests for
fiscal year 1850 included an item
for tropical worsted uniforms at
1929 apiece, enough for all the
enlisted men In the Army and
then some!"
The Army's response said the
request was intended to include
100000 Air Force personnel, and
that the cost per uniform was thus
S40.48-not 1929. It noted that
the request was tentative and was