811.24 Raw Materials/964
The Secretary of the Treasury ( Morgenthau ) to the Under Secretary of State ( Welles )
Dear Sumner: Please accept my thanks for your letter of May 8, 1940, concerning arrangements being made to ask Congress immediately to increase appropriations for the building up of reserve stocks of strategic raw materials.
An estimate of $12,500,000 has been included in the Treasury Deficiency Bill, which will be presented to the Budget in the near future. This estimate will be defended before the Appropriations Committee by the Procurement Division of the Treasury and assistance will be given in such defense by representatives of the Army, who are thoroughly cognizant of the uses to which the raw materials purchased will be put and the reasons for the kinds of material that are acquired.
With you, I share the hopes that the combined efforts that may be put behind this Deficiency Bill will result in the appropriation by Congress of the funds sought.
Sincerely yours,