Mr. THOMAS. At this point in the record we will insert a table showing the number of claims filed as of today for Public Laws 615 and 744, the ultimate number of claims that you anticipate will be filed under Public Laws 615 and 744, and then give us a third column showing the ultimate cost of all the claims under Public Laws 615 and 744. Is that clear?

Mr. CLAY. Yes.

(The information requested is as follows:)

Receipt of claims under Public Law 615 and Public Law 744 to Jan. 10, 1955

Mr. PHILLIPS. You evidently then have no estimate of the cost per claim of settlement?

Mr. CLAY. No; we do not, sir. They vary to such an extent from a very small prisoner-of-war claim to a very complicated sequestration account of one of our large American banks, or a large Philippine Island bank, which has paid in good faith their American depositors and then they become the subrogees to the right to claim for themselves.

COST OF ADMINISTRATION

Mr. PHILLIPS. Go back to the cost of administration. You estimate, according to this request, that for the fourth quarter of the fiscal year 1955 you will spend $275,000 for administrative expenses; is that right?

Mr. CLAY. That is correct.

Mr. PHILLIPS. What do you estimate the cost of the third quarter will be which will end on March 31?

Mr. KLEIZO. The estimated cost altogether will be $255,000.
Mr. PHILLIPS. Go back to the second quarter.

Mr. KLEIZO. I do not have those figures broken out, but I have the first and second quarters combined.

Mr. PHILLIPS. All right.

Mr. KLEIZO. They will run approximately $510,000.
Mr. PHILLIPS. $510,000 divided by 2 is $255,000.

Can you go

back and give me what it cost for your last fiscal year, 1954? Mr. KLEIZO. Yes.

Mr. PHILLIPS. Do you have that broken down by quarters?

Mr. KLEIZO. No. It is an annual figure.

Mr. PHILLIPS. Give me the figure for the year.

Mr. KLEIZO. We do not have it here, but we can provide that for you.

Mr. PHILLIPS. I wish you would.

(The information requested is as follows:)

Approximately $850,000.

AMOUNT SET ASIDE FOR TERMINAL LEAVE

Mr. THOMAS. May I interrupt you? When you get to your quarters, you will find the $275,000 they have for this last quarter is about $25,000 more than they spent in any other quarter. The question is, How much terminal leave is there?

Mr. PHILLIPS. How about this terminal-leave situation? Have you set aside money? When you ask for $275,000, have you set aside money?

Mr. CLAY. Yes.

Mr. PHILLIPS. How much?

Mr. CLAY. $30,000.

Mr. PHILLIPS. $30,000 as terminal leave, so you are really asking for $245,000.

Mr. CLAY. That is correct.

EXTENSION OF LIFE OF THE COMMISSION

Mr. PHILLIPS. Now I am interested in the number of cases, as is the chairman. How many extensions of your life have you had? Mr. CLAY. Well, are we talking about the extensions which would terminate the claims on March 31, 1955?

Mr. PHILLIPS. I am talking about what started as the War Claims Administration, and now, in order to cover a broader field, is the Foreign Claims Settlement Commission.

Mr. CLAY. Prior to the President's reorganization plan I believe the War Claims Commission's life was extended on three different occasions.

Mr. PHILLIPS. Each time the life was extended.

Mr. CLAY. Could I correct that? It was twice.

Mr. PHILLIPS. It was extended twice. Each time a new set of claims were filed, am I right, an additional set of claims?

Mr. CLAY. That is not correct. That was just to complete the claims' load.

Mr. PHILLIPS. You had better find out about that.

Mr. MCGUIRE. The only time it was extended by a new category of claims was under Public Law 303 of the 82d Congress.

Mr. PHILLIPS. I do not necessarily mean a new category. You had a certain number of claims filed and an expiration date was announced, and the tide of claims ceased to flow. You did not get through with it and Congress reviewed it, and in came more claims in the same category; is that right?

Mr. MCGUIRE. That is right.

Mr. PHILLIPS. There is no way of figuring out how much you got each time.

Mr. MCGUIRE. I do not have those figures. I would imagine they would be available.

Mr. PHILLIPS. If they are available I would like very much to see them, because I think that is significant at the present time.

(The information requested will be supplied to the committee later.)

SOLICITATION OF CLAIMS

Mr. PHILLIPS. Will the General Counsel tell us where you have the authority in law to advertise yourselves and solicit business?

Mr. MCGUIRE. The only authority, as you and I have reviewed the matter before

Mr. PHILLIPS. We have taken a dim view of this. We do not concur in your interpretation of this act.

Mr. MCGUIRE. I so gathered previously. The only such admonition was contained in Public Law 16, which amended Public Law 896 of the 80th Congress.

Mr. PHILLIPS. That is the same one that we have argued about before. In spite of the fact that the Congress does not take the same view of the act as you, you continue to use that as an authority to advertise?

Mr. MCGUIRE. I think the terms "advertising" and "soliciting" have been slightly misused here this morning.

Mr. PHILLIPS. What would you call it?

Mr. MCGUIRE. We are not soliciting as such. The only thing we have done in relation to solicitation refers to Public Law 615, and we have done that in an attempt to save money and not to spend it, in this sense that the Department of Defense has furnished the Commission with a roster of former prisoners of war in the Korean conflict and rather than issue claim applications in bulk to create a tremendous workload, we have individually solicited the persons listed on that roster. This is the only solicitation that has been done. With respect to Public Law 744 there is no solicitation program, and the only program that will be followed by the Commission in that respect. would be to request the assistance of the interested groups of claimants to get their members to file their claims with the Commission. Other than that, the only thing that would be done by the Commission would be to issue press releases and things of that nature.

Mr. PHILLIPS. I do not know whether you heard that or not, Mr. Chairman, but this is not advertising or solicitation. It is merely notifying a large list of people that you are open and ready for business, and inviting the various groups to circularize their own members and tell them that you are ready and open for business.

Mr. THOMAS. Yes; open for business.

Mr. PHILLIPS. It seems to be a distinction without much difference. Mr. THOMAS. It reminds me of the little hotel in the town that I was born in, of ringing the dinner bell and saying, "Here it is boys."

BACKGROUND AND ORGANIZATION OF THE COMMISSION

Mr. ANDREWs. When was this Commission created, Mr. Chairman?

Mr. CLAY. July 1, 1954.

Mr. ANDREWS. This Commission?

Mr. CLAY. The Foreign Claims Settlement Commission.

Mr. ANDREWS. The Foreign Claims Settlement Commission?

Mr. CLAY. Yes, sir; that is right.

Mr. ANDREWs. That is different from the War Claims Commission? Mr. CLAY. That is correct.

Mr. ANDREWs. When was the War Claims Commission created?

Mr. MCGUIRE. On July 3, 1948, the basic act was approved. The Commission was created or came into being on September 14, 1949.

Mr. CLAY. That was a consolidation of the International Claims Commission of the United States, of which I was Acting Chairman, and the War Claims Commission, of which Mr. Whitney Gilliland was Chairman and who is the Chairman of this new Commission, the Foreign Claims Settlement Commission.

Mr. ANDREWS. The Commission that you represent now is the Foreign Claims Settlement Commission?

Mr. CLAY. The Foreign Claims Settlement Commission of the United States; yes, sir.

Mr. ANDREWS. When was it created?

Mr. CLAY. It was created by virtue of the President's Reorganization Act.

Mr. THOMAS. Under Reorganization Plan No. 1.

Mr. CLAY. Yes, Reorganization Plan No. 1 of 1954, and it was activated on July 1, 1954.

Mr. ANDREWS. As a matter of fact, it is just the same Commission that was known as the War Claims Commission, is it not?

Mr. CLAY. This new Commission had transferred to it all the duties and responsibilities of the War Claims Commission and the International Claims Commission, as well as the functions of the Commission provided for in the public resolution approved August 4, 1939 (53 Stat. 1199), relating to the Litvinov assignment; that is correct; yes, sir.

Mr. ANDREWS. Was there any provision made in the act creating the War Claims Commission that provided for its termination?

Mr. CLAY. Yes, sir.

The War Claims Commission, as such, terminated and its functions, duties, and responsibilities were transferred to the Foreign Claims Settlement Commission.

Mr. ANDREWS. When did the War Claims Commission end?

Mr. CLAY. On June 30, 1954.

Mr. ANDREWS. Then the Foreign Claims Settlement Commission came into existence?

Mr. CLAY. That is correct; yes, sir.

Mr. ANDREWs. With the same personnel that the War Claims Commission had?

Mr. CLAY. No, sir.

Mr. ANDREWS. How many changes did you have in personnel?

Mr. CLAY. There were 3 Commissioners provided for under the International Claims Commission, and there were 3 Commissioners provided for under the War Claims Commission. When they were consolidated the act provided for the appointment of 3 Commissioners to administer the functions of the Foreign Claims Settlement Commission, so it merged 6 Commission positions in the new Commission, which is 3 in number.

Mr. ANDREWs. You had three Commissioners for the War Claims Commission?

Mr. CLAY. That is correct.

Mr. ANDREWS. And you have three Commissioners for the Foreign Claims Settlement Commission?

Mr. CLAY. Yes, sir; that is correct.

Mr. ANDREWS. How many of the present Foreign Claims Settlement Commissioners served as Commissioners with the War Claims Commission?

Mr. ANDREWS. At the beginning of the Foreign Claims Settlement Commission what kind of a turnover in personnel did you have? Mr. CLAY. Our Executive Director and our General Counsel are the same. We have had a merging of the two staffs. We have eliminated some 56 positions to get down to the level of personnel required to do the work anticipated under Public Laws 744 and 615.

Mr. ANDREWS. As a matter of fact, with the exception of 2 or 3 topflight positions you still have the same personnel in the Foreign Claims Settlement Commission that you had in the War Claims Commission?

Mr. KENNEDY. Beginning on July 1 when the Foreign Settlement Claims Commission came into being we absorbed approximately 50 employees who were formerly with the International Claims Commission, which ceased to exist on June 30. We carried those employees we had plus those employees through December 31, at which time two categories of claims, the Panamanian and the Yugoslav property claims were terminated.

Mr. ANDREWs. Is that a third Commission, the International Claims Commission?

Mr. CLAY. No; it is the second Commission.

Mr. ANDREWS. When you say the International Claims Commission you are referring to the same Claims Commission today, the Foreign Claims Settlement Commission?

Mr. CLAY. No, sir.

Mr. KENNEDY. On June 30 one Commission was the International Claims Commission.

Mr. ANDREWS. When was it created?

Mr. CLAY. It was created in 1949.

Mr. ANDREWs. At the same time the War Claims Commission was created?

Mr. CLAY. Generally speaking, about a year later, sir.

Mr. ANDREWs. Were they two separate Commissions, the War Claims Commission and the International Claims Commission? Mr. CLAY. Yes, sir.

Mr. ANDREWS. When the War Claims Commission expired on June 30, 1954, how many employees did you have with the War Claims Commission, can you tell me?

Mr. CLAY. You mean the Foreign Claims Settlement Commission? Mr. ANDREWS. No, the first Commission, the War Claims Commission. We are talking about when that expired on June 30, 1954. Mr. KENNEDY. We had 174.

Mr. ANDREWS. How many of those 174 employees are now with the Foreign Claims Settlement Commission?

Mr. KENNEDY. We have on the rolls today 172. When we had a reduction in force we separated some of the employees who were formerly with the International Claims Commission and some who were with the War Claims Commission.