DEMOBILIZATION OF OSRD 317 



and at its meeting on September 6, 1945, the Committee adopted a sched- 

 ule assigning each of its contracts to its proper place in accordance with 

 the Director's instructions. The Director transmitted the schedule with 

 his approval to the Director of OWMR, who in turn approved the program 

 without change. Under the program, most CMR contracts were permitted 

 to expire at their December 31, 1945, termination date. Many of them 

 were replaced by contracts negotiated by the Public Health Service effec- 

 tive January i, 1946, using funds appropriated by Congress for the pur- 

 pose. A number of contracts were transferred to the Surgeon General of 

 the Army by a tripartite agreement among the OSRD, the Surgeon Gen- 

 eral, and the contractor. Because of its complexity, that portion of the 

 antimalarial program involving clinical testing of new potential antima- 

 larials was left under CMR control with the distinct understanding that 

 it would be completed not later than June 30, 1946. A limited amount of 

 research of a fundamental character was continued by the Committee in 

 the expectation that it would be turned over to the National Research 

 Foundation upon its establishment; the cost of this program was of the 

 order of $250,000 annually. 



Transfer of Contracts 



To implement the OSRD demobilization plan, its legal division was 

 requested to devise a procedure under which long-range developments 

 could be transferred to the Services with a minimum of delay and admin- 

 istrative detail. In collaboration with the Army and Navy, OSRD attor- 

 neys worked out a three-party instrument of assignment which was drafted 

 in the form of a supplement to the basic OSRD contract concerned. This 

 assignment provided, in brief, for the transfer to the interested Service 

 of all OSRD's rights, powers, responsibilities and obligations under the 

 basic contract, the assumption by the interested Service of such rights, 

 powers, responsibilities and obligations, the consent of the contractor to 

 such transfer, and the release by the contractor of OSRD, its officials and 

 employees from further responsibility with respect to the contract. 



Specifically, this meant that on and after the effective date of the trans- 

 fer, the Army or Navy would undertake to process all unpaid vouchers, 

 settle or otherwise dispose of all outstanding claims, exercise all rights 

 theretofore vested in OSRD to require (a) interim and final technical 

 reports, (b) invention disclosures, reports and records, (c) property ac- 

 countings and inventories, and would direct the use and ultimate dispo- 

 sition of all contract property both real and personal in which the Govern- 

 ment had a vested interest. In other words, the receiving Service would, in 

 effect, step into the shoes of the OSRD and carry forward to completion 

 all business unfinished at the date of the transfer. Unspent contract funds 



