DEMOBILIZATION OF OSRD 315 



might present proposals for contracts to run beyond June 30, 1945, in 

 cases falling within the spirit of the Director's letter. 



General Simmons on January 17, 1945, wrote Richards to express the 

 strong desire of the Surgeon General that no step should be taken which 

 would serve to constrict the field of responsibility of CMR or to limit its 

 activity until the war ended and medical problems had become less urgent. 

 As long as fighting continued, the Medical Department of the Army 

 would not have the facilities or the scientific and administrative personnel 

 to take over and continue at a high level of competence the type of research 

 being conducted by CMR. Any plan to transfer contracts to the Medical 

 Department would result only in loss to the Army. In presenting the letter 

 to the CMR at its meeting on February i, the Chairman pointed out that 

 the Director's instructions with reference to transfers specifically stated 

 that the transfers were to be effected only where this was possible with- 

 out loss of effectiveness. 



For some time Bush was concerned about the possibility that with the 

 successful outcome of the war against Germany there might be so many 

 resignations from the voluntary and paid staff of OSRD that the effective 

 supervision of contracts would be imperiled. Accordingly, on February 23, 

 1945, he addressed a memorandum to Conant and Richards asking them 

 to bear this possibility in mind. He asked that they assure themselves in 

 connection with programs submitted for his approval that adequate per- 

 sonnel would be available in each division and in the Offices of the Chair- 

 men to insure the carrying out of the obligations to be undertaken. In 

 presenting the memorandum to CMR on March i, 1945, the Chairman 

 stated that he had discussed it with the Division Chiefs and was convinced 

 that there would be no difficulty in carrying out the views stated in the 

 memorandum. 



The emphasis upon the temporary character of OSRD activities and the 

 limited extensions of contracts which were granted as a matter of policy 

 in order to keep CMR in a fluid state caused considerable resdessness 

 on the part of contractors' personnel, who preferred to work under condi- 

 tions permitting more long-range planning. The situation was reviewed by 

 the Division Chiefs who expressed their views to the Committee in a 

 memorandum dated May 16, 1945. They felt that the pattern of CMR 

 activities had been well conceived and that the organization could provide 

 an equally important service in time of peace. However, they believed 

 that the interest of long-range medical research and of investigators and 

 institutions was not likely to be well served by a succession of short-term 

 extensions of CMR contracts. They had therefore reviewed the CMR con- 

 tracts to determine which would be likely to have an additional value in 

 military medicine by December 31, 1945. Finding only a small number 

 which promised such results, they recommended that on or before De- 



