Page two. 
Dr. letmore. 
VIII. We had a telephone call the other day asking whether Schmitt 
could be sent to the Crossroads Project as a member of the President’s 
20-Man Civilian Commission. This group will be the top-flight civilian 
"brass." I was very much disturbed by this since the plans for 
Schmitt’s Ecuadorian trip were well under way; but after talking it 
over with Griggs, who is selecting the two biologists for Jewfctt, I did 
not see how we could possibly refuse to participate in this. This com¬ 
mittee will carry with it a great deal of prestige, and we certainly 
must be represented. For that reason I told Schmitt that if he was 
finally selected on the Crossroads Project he could go. I also took 
up with the State Department the possible deferring of the Ecuadorian 
work for another year. Zwemer understood it and he said he appre¬ 
ciated how we were situated on this. At Griggs' suggestion, I told 
the State Department not to move toward cancelling the trip, at least 
as far as Ecuador was concerned, but that they had better give some 
thought to the probable necessity for such action within a week or two. 
Griggs told me that this would be the wise thing to do, since while he 
felt sure that Dr. Jewfctt would accept his recommendations, he himself 
(Griggs) was not taking final action. 
IX. Apparently the matter of subsistence for Schultz and Morrison 
is up in the air. I had a telephone call from a Lieutenant Barber, 
who apparently is now handling this matter for the Navy Department. He 
said that Lieut. Cadr. Sargent, with whom you had dealt, had apparently 
not followed through on the matter, and he was worried as to whether 
Schultz and Morrison could have their subsistence paid directly by the 
Navy, since he did not see how it could now be made retroactive. He 
said that he wanted to be certain that these men did not suffer through 
any fault in making plans. I told him that I would much prefer to 
have the Navy reimburse our men direct for subsistence expenses; but 
if it was impossible to arrange this retroactively, that we would plan 
to pay them if the Navy would transfer an additional amount to the 
Institution for that purpose. The matter has not yet been settled, 
but it looks to me as if they will probably have to transfer about 
$1,000 additional to us to cover per diem before Schultz and Morrison 
boarded their ship, subsistence on the ship, and per diem and train 
fair from San Francisco to Washington. Lieutenant Barber also wanted 
to recheck whether we still stood by the estimate you had given them 
for $1,000 for equipment and three P-3 assistants. I checked up the 
equipment and prices with Wilding and found it comes to about $1,250 
(including equipment issued from stock). I told him that we would 
require $1,000 since we had already put more than that into it, and 
that we wanted the three assistants. I told him that the latter 
would be absolutely essential if the Navy Department wanted a complete 
and early report on our work. He said that he very greatly favored 
this and would see that it was included. Apparently we will have to 
set up a working fund tied up with Salaries and Expenses to handle the 
money transferred from the Navy for subsistence, equipment, and 
assistants. The fact that it crosses the fiscal year line makes it 
a little difficult. 
