such a nominee would, if appointed, be seriously limited in the performance of many of his responsibilities.

Mr. HAYS. Further questions?

(No response.)

Mr. HAYS. That is all, Mr. Secretary.

Mr. HENDERSON. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Mr. HAYS. We thank you very much for coming.

(Thereupon, at 12:30 p.m., the subcommittee adjourned subject

to call of the Chair.)

FOREIGN SERVICE BUILDINGS ACT AMENDMENTS, 1959

TUESDAY, JULY 28, 1959

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES,
COMMITTEE ON FOREIGN AFFAIRS,

SUBCOMMITTEE ON STATE DEPARTMENT

ORGANIZATION AND FOREIGN OPERATIONS,

Washington, D.C.

The subcommittee met, pursuant to call, at 10:30 a.m., in room G-3, the Capitol, the Honorable Wayne L. Hays (chairman of the subcommittee) presiding.

Mr. HAYS. The subcommittee will please come to order.

The purpose of the meeting this morning is to hear the statement of Mr. Hughes, Director, Foreign Buildings Office, Department of State, at the request of the committee in order to try to clear up some items that we were in doubt about in the justifications.

I have some questions, myself, but I would like to defer to Mr. Farbstein who has had a memorandum made on this matter but who is not here at the present time.

I have one question in which I am very interested from the memorandum prepared for Mr. Farbstein and that is with reference to Dacca.

In your justifications, Mr. Hughes, you say that the reason you want to build a consulate general's office building there is the poor location of the present office, undignified and difficult of access, and haphazard utility services.

Your post report for 1958 says that the consulate is located in newly constructed six-story building in a new business area. It is one of the few modern office buildings, and is equipped with fluorescent lights and air conditioning.

How do you account for such a divergency in your justification to us and your post report?

STATEMENT OF WILLIAM P. HUGHES, DIRECTOR, OFFICE OF FOREIGN BUILDINGS, DEPARTMENT OF STATE

Mr. HUGHES. On Dacca, Mr. Chairman, the office and housing facilities, including USIA, are rented at an annual cost of $27,405. The interior of the building is of rough cement finish both on walls. and floors, and it is continually damp and moist during the rainy season. Utilities are supplied in haphazard fashion. Water pressure is too low to force water into the supply tanks with the constant use of insanitary facilities. There is considerable unpaved area in front of the building which becomes a quagmire during the monsoon months.

The post has continuously emphasized the need of a Governmentowned office building at Dacca as a sign of confidence in the stability of Pakistan.

Inspection has been made of several possible sites suitable for acquisition. The Foreign Service inspectors have likewise stressed the need for a Government-owned office building.

However, examinations have been made with promise of some success and selection of a site has been narrowed down to one or two possibilities.

We think we can acquire a site and build a suitable Government office building there for $250,000.

I might say, Mr. Chairman, I have brought along with me here the latest and most recent information that we have from the post including comments by our Foreign Service inspectors.

Mr. HAYS. Let me read what your post report says.

Mr. BENTLEY. What date is this report that you have been reading from?

Mr. HUGHES. October 1, 1956, and also March 18, 1959.

Mr. HAYS. This post report is June 9, 1958, and this is what it says: Since November 18, 1957

and I think that would outdate your first report

offices of the consulate general and ICA have been located on the fifth and sixth floors respectively of the newly constructed Adamjee Court, a six-story building located in the Motijheel area of Dacca, opposite the Dacca Stadium, and in the midst of a new business area. The Adamjee Court is one of the few modern office buildings in Dacca; the offices of both the consulate general and ICA are equipped with fluorescent lighting. In addition the offices of the consulate general are air conditioned.

When the report says "The offices", I assume that means all of them. It is expected that the offices of ICA will be air conditioned in the near future. The main offices of the U.S. information center are located in a sepate one-story building at 14 Topkhana Road, approximately 1 mile from the Adamjee Court. The building was constructed some 31⁄2 years ago; at present a second story is under construction. The press section of USIS is housed in a separate building a short distance from the main USIS office.

Incidentally, the rent as set forth in this report was $13,946 on the office building and not the $27,000 that you gave us.

Mr. HUGHES. That may be just the State Department rent. I was including the USIA item. The report seems to include it all. Mr. BENTLEY. That is the State Department portion only?

Mr. HAYS. You were including all rent?

Mr. HUGHES. Yes, sir.

Mr. HAYS. I still do not see how you account for the difference in your justifications. This is the thing that worries me about this bill. This is the thing that has brought the criticism in the press and by the Appropriations Subcommittee that says that this committee does not do its homework.

The question occurs to me, how can this subcommittee do its homework if we do not have any confidence in the justification report. Mr. HUGHES. I cannot speak, Mr. Chairman, to the post report. Mr. HAYS. Where do you get your information?

Mr. HUGHES. I get my information from the FBO regional people in the field, and I get it also from the Foreign Service inspection

corps; I get it also from the embassy in its reports, and I get it also from personal examination of the posts.

However, I have not been in Dacca, but have visited with the people who come and go from the post as they leave their assignments and as they take them up.

We have here a standing recommendation from the inspectors to acquire at Dacca a Government-owned establishment-a consolidated setup for both the State Department and the USIA and the other representatives at that post.

Mr. HAYS. Mr. Hughes, I am not so sure that that standing recommendation means much to me unless we knew what your policy is.

Is it the policy of those inspectors to recommend that you acquire a building any place and every place at any time, or do you have a policy or do the various inspectors just recommend on their own whatever happens to come to them, or how do they arrive at this decision to make such a recommendation?

Mr. HUGHES. I would say, Mr. Chairman, that the basic policy for this program in terms of the acquisition of Government-owned properties stems right from this committee in the first instance, and from Congress generally. The No. 1 objective for this program was to provide representative consolidated office space for the Foreign Service and other agencies of the U.S. Government operating in cooperation with the Foreign Service except where leasing arrangements are more advantageous. That objective was laid down by this committee in its 1952 report as the No. 1 objective for this program and we have been trying our best to move in that direction and to acquire Government-owned property on a consolidated basis at as many posts as we

can.

We have been trying in recent years to highlight those posts where the conditions are bad and where dollar savings in rents can be effected and also to provide insofar as possible secure office space and maintain it as best we can.

Mr. HAYS. You used the word "consolidated" there. When you are talking about consolidated are you confining that to office space, or does that carry over to everything else? Do you mean by that you want to have consolidated living quarters and office space and everything in one area?

Mr. HUGHES. No, sir.

Mr. HAYS. You are just using the word consolidated as it applies to office space?

Mr. HUGHES. I am using the word "consolidated" as it applies to the agencies at that post.

Mr. HENDERSON. And office space.

Mr. HUGHES. Not building into it the compound concept but to consolidate.

Mr. HAYS. So the record will be perfectly clear, you would mean to include in that residences?

Mr. HUGHES. No, sir; except where we do not have any choice, Mr. Chairman. We are not any happier with this compound business or with the consolidation of offices and living space any more so than anyone else. We think it is bad.

We are only getting into it when we actually see no other alternative to it.