United States Congressional Serial Set

tically reached the limit of the appropriations heretofore authorized, an additional authorization is needed, if the commission is to continue with plans for the further carrying into effect the provisions of the Foreign Service buildings act. The commission is composed of the Secretary of State, the Secretary of the Treasury, the Secretary of Commerce, the chairman and the ranking minority member of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, and the chairman and the ranking minority member of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs.

The letter from the Bureau of the Budget and the letter from the Secretary of State with inclosure are printed in full as a part of this report.

The SECRETARY OF STATE.

BUREAU OF THE BUDGET,
Washington, January 16, 1931.

MY DEAR MR. SECRETARY: I have from Assistant Secretary of State Carr a letter dated January 13, 1931, submitting for consideration with reference to the financial program of the President a tentative report on H. R. 15774, to provide additional funds for buildings for the use of the diplomatic and consular establishments of the United States.

You are advised that, in so far as the financial program of the President is concerned, there is no objection to your making a favorable report on this proposed legislation.

Very truly yours,

J. CLAWSON ROOP, Director.

JANUARY 17, 1931.

HON. HENRY W. TEMPLE,

House of Representatives.

MY DEAR DOCTOR TEMPLE: I have received your letter of January 7, 1931, and have examined with care the bill (H. R. 15774), to provide funds in addition to the amount authorized by the Foreign Service buildings act of 1926 for buildings for the diplomatic and consular establishments of the United States, and it gives me pleasure to say that the measure seems admirably adapted to the purpose of improving the effectiveness of our representation abroad. Moreover, I am pleased to say that the bill has been brought to the attention of the President, who considers that it is in harmony with his financial program.

Your bill, it is noted, does not involve additional actual appropriations by the Congress until the appropriations authorized under the Foreign Service buildings act of 1926 shall have been completed, but the increase in authorization effected by supplementing this basic legislation will enable the Foreign Service buildings commission created under the original act, to plan expenditures ahead some two years and thereby take advantage, for the benefit of the Government of the present lowered costs of acquiring land and lowered costs of construction. Your measure if adopted will permit the present plans of the commission to go forward without interruption.

The Foreign Service buildings act has been in effect some four years. In that period the commission first dealt with certain pending projects; it approved previously drawn plans for the construction of the consulate at Amoy, China; authorized the acquisition of land and construction at Tirana, Albania, both of which have been completed and are now tenanted by our officials; approved plans and authorized the construction of the diplomatic and consular establishment at Tokyo, Japan, which is now 70 per cent completed, authorized the acquisition, remodeling, and repair of the consulate at Penang, Straits Settlements, and the consulate at Nagasaki, Japan, both of which are finished and occupied, and has approved an exchange of land and its improvement with a consular building at Yokohama, Japan, where construction has been initiated.

In the summer of 1927 the late Congressman Stephen G. Porter, then chairman of the buildings commission, made a journey through Central America and Cuba, where he examined various sites for Government establishments and made recommendations for acquisitions. In the latter part of the summer he went to

Paris and selected the site on the northwest corner of the Place de la Concorde for a Government office building, which has since been acquired, and where it is planned to initiate construction in March. In the summer of 1928 Mr. Porter again went to Europe, and, as a result of his examinations, additional sites were tentatively selected, which have been approved for acquisition by the Foreign Service Buildings Commission for office and residential accommodations for this Government in Berlin and in one other important European capital. In Berlin, the United States has signed a contract to buy the property originally selected by Mr. Porter and Congressman Linthicum, of Maryland. In the other capital, we are in the process of negotiating for the site which has been selected by these men, seen and approved by Secretary Mellon and Members of Congress.

At all of these capitals the work and responsibilities of our officials is of preeminent importance to our country, and they were, therefore, selected as examples of what may be accomplished to improve the service, to the great convenience of officials and large numbers of American travelers, by centralizing all official activities in one Government office building. With the exception of these three projects, no other acquisitions have been made in western Europe, because it was the policy of the commission first to take care of unhealthful posts and posts in South America and the Far East.

In South America the commission has approved plans for an office building in Rio de Janeiro; has purchased a site and approved plans for an office building in Buenos Aires; has acquired, repaired, and furnished a residence now occupied by the American ambassador in Buenos Aires; and has acquired a site for an American ambassador's residence in Lima, Peru, for which plans and specifications have been approved, so that construction may go forward within the next three months. All of these South American posts were visited by Hon. J. Charles Linthicum, of Baltimore, on whose recommendations the commission has acted.

I may remark that your bill provides for the continuation of the present system of controlling the expenditure of the fund by the Foreign Service Buildings Commission, composed of four members of Congress, two each from the Foreign Relations and Foreign Affairs Committees of the Senate and House of Representatives, respectively, and three members of the Cabinet, and I therefore avail myself of this opportunity to express my unqualified approval of the present arrangement. Experience has shown, I think, that before acquiring property abroad for the Government at least one member of the commission should, as a rule, make a personal examination of the situation on the ground.

As a practical matter, it is impossible for members of the Cabinet, during their incumbency, to visit any but the nearest posts to Washington. It has been possible, however, for members of Congress, when that body is not in session, to make such journeys as will enable them to appear with a detailed personal knowledge before their fellow commissioners, and, on the interchange of ideas at a meeting of the commission, shape a policy of acquisition and construction along the lines of greatest benefit to our Government. Such has been our experience in the past, due to the unselfish interest taken in the problems of the Foreign Service by the late Congressman Porter and Congressman Linthicum of Baltimore. I desire at this time to record my appreciation of their work abroad in the study of the living problems, the working problems, and construction problems in various foreign posts.

It is gratifying to me to regard your introduction of this bill as an approval of what has been done by the Foreign Service Buildings Commission as the result of the powers granted in the Foreign Service buildings act, and I trust that your bill will receive the support of your colleagues in Congress, because it will enable the Foreign Service Buildings Commission to proceed with plans already made and very carefully considered, with the assistance of the Supervising Architect of the Treasury, for the improvement of the lands already acquired, a list of which is hereto attached, together with the estimated cost of their improvement if your bill becomes a law.

I earnestly hope that this measure may receive the favorable consideration of the Congress.

Sincerely yours,

HENRY L. STIMSON.

Acquisition of lands and tentative plans for their improvement by the Foreign Service Buildings Commission