NDRC OF OSRD — THE COMMITTEE 65 



(4) Division and panel reports on special subjects as requested from time 

 to time for the information of the Committee or the Services. 



(5) Reports on service demonstrations and tests. 



In addition, special reports were to be submitted as requested by the 

 Chairman, the Director, or the Services (through the Chairman). 



At the time of the reorganization it had been decided to require the 

 submission of monthly administrative reports from the Division and Panel 

 Chiefs to keep the Chairman and NDRC informed of the progress of the 

 work, its cost and any significant developments that might justify further 

 research along parallel or divergent lines. A re-examination of the situation 

 a month later led to the conclusion that the other means of obtaining this 

 information, such as the meetings of the reviewing subcommittees, were 

 sufficient and hence the reports were not required. 



Division Chiefs were required to see that notice of all proposed Service 

 trials and tests (other than routine) of NDRC developments was sent to 

 the Chairman's Office in order that arrangements might be made for rep- 

 resentatives from that office as well as members of NDRC if they desired 

 to attend the demonstration. 



The operation of NDRC was described at some length by Conant in a 

 memorandum to Bush on April 26, 1944. He pointed out that historically 

 the divisions of NDRC were the basic units, with the basic decision on 

 scientific policy and the immediate supervision of scientific results resting 

 with them. The function of the NDRC itself was to review the judgment 

 of the divisions by three different mechanisms: (i) specific contracts, 

 (2) reviewing subcommittees, and (3) periodical reviews by the full Com- 

 mittee, usually with the Division Chief appearing before it. He concluded: 



The ramifications of the research program being conducted under the National 

 Defense Research Committee are obviously so great as to make it impossible for 

 such Committee to have any detailed knowledge or pass detailed judgment on 

 the week by week development. The Committee is able, however, to review the 

 judgments of the individual divisions and to make suggestions to the divisions as 

 to the conduct of their work and to the propriety of the contracts which they 

 recommend. In particular, they must be concerned with the question of whether 

 certain projects should be expanded or contracted or abandoned. The fact that 

 the Committee includes an Army and Navy representative closely in touch with 

 the research work of these Services enables the Committee to have available in- 

 timate knowledge of the Army and Navy programs in passing an over-all judg- 

 ment on the recommendations of the separate divisions. 



Expedited or "Crash" Procurement 



Prior to Pearl Harbor, and in the earlier phases of the war. Service 

 project requests were predominantly requests for research and development. 

 In the later phases of the war, many of the requests tended to become 



