LIAISON WITH ALLIED GOVERNMENTS I75 



patents. The Commissioner of Patents had been authorized by Congress 

 to hold in secrecy patent appUcations the disclosure of which would en- 

 danger national security. Bush agreed that OSRD would advise the Com- 

 missioner on applications within its field; and the Liaison Office made the 

 initial examination of applications which was followed by a more thorough 

 review by NDRC specialists prior to advice to the Commissioner on the 

 issuance of secrecy orders. 



Lend-Lease Activities 



By the middle of 1942 the Radiation Laboratory had developed a num- 

 ber of radar devices which the British wished to obtain and which the 

 development groups wished to provide since the British were in a better 

 position than the American forces to try out new weapons. To facilitate 

 this, in July 1942, OSRD was designated as a procuring agency by the 

 Lend-Lease Administration. This arrangement was continued until the 

 cessation of lend-lease activities in September 1945. All the preliminary nego- 

 tiations leading to a lend-lease requisition were handled between the Liai- 

 son Office and the NDRC divisions, and the final recommendation for 

 approval of the requisitions was forwarded by the Liaison Office upon the 

 advice of the divisions to the Foreign Economic Administration (FEA). 

 Although the bulk of the lend-lease requisitions were on Division 14 or 

 Division 15 contractors, almost every NDRC division had at least one 

 device transferred to the British by this means. 



There was also a small amount of reverse lend-lease; in this instance the 

 materials were acquired in England by the London Mission or one of the 

 branch laboratories and sent to the United States for the use of an OSRD 

 contractor. The importance of the transfer of experimental equipment is 

 but poorly indicated by the dollar value of materials transferred, approxi- 

 mately $6,600,000. Lend-lease facilities were also used to transfer some 

 apparatus to Canada, but in these cases cash was paid by Canada. The 

 OSRD in either case was reimbursed by FEA for the expenses incurred 

 in making and supplying the device to the requisitioning agency. 



Special Facilities for Exchange of Radar Information 



Huge sums were spent both in England and the United States on the 

 development of radar as a defensive and offensive weapon, and its use was 

 an important factor in achieving victory. Proper liaison in this field was 

 essential in order to insure the prompt exchange of information and the 

 co-ordination of the research programs on radar in Great Britain and 

 America. 



With the entry of the United States into the war, research and develop- 



