861.24/5–1546
Brigadier General D. G. Shingler, General Staff Corps, Deputy Director of Procurement, War Department, to Mr. John N. Hazard of the Office of Foreign Liquidation
Dear Mr. Hazard: Reference is made to your 15 April 1946 letter24 wherein you request confirmation of the fact that vessels procured with funds appropriated to the War Department do not necessarily have to be returned to the Government of the United States. Also whether or not the return of any or all of these vessels will be desired for other than legal reasons.
There appear to be no legal restrictions with regard to any vessels procured from funds appropriated to the War Department, similar [Page 841] to those applicable to vessels procured from funds appropriated to the Navy, which require return of such vessels to the United States.
The War Department has no requirement for the vessels and barges previously made available to the U.S.S.R.25
As you know, the War Department has consistently adhered to the position outlined in a letter of the Acting Lend-Lease Administor to the Secretary of War dated 16 June 1942, that the responsibility for the determination of the terms and conditions upon which war materials are lend leased to a foreign government and the benefit to be received by the United States therefrom rest with the State Department. Pursuant to your request for the recommendation of the War Department in this connection, however, it is the firm recommendation of the War Department that final disposition of vessels procured from funds appropriated to the War Department should be made under the same terms and the same restrictions as are applicable to vessels procured from funds appropriated to the Navy Department.
Sincerely yours,