SCIENTIFIC MANPOWER 267 



by OSRD were made under the provisions of Part IV (i-b) of Executive 

 Order No. 9309 which covered "any employee of the Agency not occupy- 

 ing a key position whose civiUan services are essential, if unusual and spe- 

 cial circumstances, such as the employee's unique fitness for the work or 

 unique familiarity with a specific project in the course of completion 

 make such deferment request necessary. No request for deferment shall 

 be made under this subparagraph except with the prior specific approval 

 of the Review Committee." The Agency Committee procedure did not 

 extend to persons serving OSRD without compensation or part time. This 

 was immaterial as most such persons were not within the age limits of 

 Selective Service. 



The OSRD Agency Committee was originally composed of one repre- 

 sentative each of NDRC, CMR, the Liaison Office, and the Committee on 

 Scientific Personnel with Stewart as Chairman. When responsibility for 

 relations with the Selective Service System was transferred to the newly 

 created Scientific Personnel Office in June 1943, Hogan succeeded Stew- 

 art as Chairman of the Agency Committee and was in turn succeeded by 

 Bailey in March 1944. 



A statutory basis was provided for the procedure initiated under Execu- 

 tive Order No. 9309 by Public Law No. 23 of April 8, 1943. 



As it had early become apparent that it was only a question of time until 

 practically all administrative employees would be refused deferment, a policy 

 of recruiting such employees from among women and men rejected by Selec- 

 tive Service for physical reasons (4F) was actively pursued. As a result 

 the operations of Selective Service occasioned little difficulty to the admin- 

 istrative aspects of OSRD work, aside from occasional flurries when a 

 lowering of physical standards brought a lA classification to a man who 

 had been put in a responsible position in reliance on his 4F classification. 



The men for whom OSRD sought deferment because of their scientific 

 or technical qualifications and responsibilities fell into two groups, Tech- 

 nical Aides and contract employees of the Office of Field Service. After the 

 issuance of new regulations tightening deferment requirements in Febru- 

 ary 1944, OSRD was for a time in danger of having its program interrupted 

 by losing part of the Technical Aide staff supervising research contracts. 

 A procedure was worked out, however, under which a maximum of 

 seventy-five men engaged in highly technical and scientific work might be 

 deferred upon the request of the Director of OSRD endorsed by the Sec- 

 retary of War or the Secretary of the Navy. Actually forty such requests 

 were made, all were approved by the Review Committee, and the men 

 deferred. 



A comparable situation arose with respect to OFS contract personnel, 

 many of whom were following the performance of new equipment un- 



