142 ORGANIZING SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH FOR WAR 



that is, to have the unit report directly to the command and follow the 

 customary regulations of military control over personnel, equipment and 

 communications. It was proposed the PBOSRD should be an operating 

 unit with its Director reporting direcdy to the Chief of Staff so that in 

 effect it would be a Special Staff Section of GHQ; in addition, it was to be 

 free to communicate directly with OSRD at home on purely technical 

 matters. 



Lieutenant General R. K. Sutherland, Chief of Staff for General Mac- 

 Arthur, also decided that General MacArthur should have a senior ad- 

 visory specialist as his own consultant on technical matters. He would be 

 appointed Special Staff Officer on scientific and technical affairs and would 

 report to the Chief of Staff independently of the Director of PBOSRD. 

 Obviously the two would have to work in close co-operation. Eventually 

 E. L. Moreland, Executive Officer of NDRC, was selected for this impor- 

 tant post. Bush accepted the recommendation for the establishment of a 

 Pacific Branch of OSRD and appointed Compton as its Director with the 

 responsibility of supervising the entire OSRD program in the Pacific. 



Since the Army had approved a plan that would give the technical men 

 direct access to the topmost levels of the Pacific command, it was clear 

 that OSRD units need feel no further hesitancy to release their most com- 

 petent personnel for aid in delivering the knockout blows at Japan. Bush 

 and Conant addressed letters to all divisions of NDRC and CMR asking 

 that they back the powerful team of Compton and Moreland to the full- 

 est extent possible. Those divisions which would be primarily concerned 

 with problems of the theater gave Compton recommendations of key 

 personnel who would be made available on call for the staff of senior 

 consultants. These men were then alerted by OFS, began their process- 

 ing and stood by for the theater request. 



It had been agreed that OFS was to assume primary responsibility for 

 attention to the needs of this new unit so that the Director of PBOSRD 

 could look to a single office in Washington for administrative assistance 

 in procurement of personnel, handling of communications and requests 

 for information. A contract was proposed with the National Academy of 

 Sciences for the establishment and operation of a laboratory at Manila 

 and at such other places as might be indicated, together with the sup- 

 porting services which a contractor might appropriately provide. The Di- 

 rector of PBOSRD was to be Scientific Officer under the contract. 



Although Compton arrived in the theater only a few days before the 

 capitulation of Japan, the Pacific Branch was more than a paper organ- 

 ization. There was already in the theater a sizeable group of first-line men 

 sent out from various OSRD Divisions to the Research Section and Far 

 Eastern Air Force. They would have constituted Compton's initial staff. 

 The central OFS office in Washington had approximately seventy more 



