867.00/12–3047
The Coordinator for Aid to Greece and Turkey (McGhee) to Senator William F. Knowland 1
My Dear Senator Knowland: In compliance with the telephone request received from your office on December 29, 1947, the following information has been assembled.
As of December 11 three vessels carrying aid material had arrived in Turkey. They carried 6 cranes, 1 tractor, 6 graders, 252 cases spare parts, 10 road scrapers, 2 crushing plants, 15 tractors, 2 trailers 20 ton, 20 trailers 1 ton, with tools and accessories for both, 102 boxes signal equipment containing telephones, switchboard, etc., 84 machine guns, 15 machine gun mounts, 4 road graders and 68 boxes spare parts, 180 boxes radio operating equipment, 6 automobiles for Mission and 1,333 cartons ammunition. No other goods have been exported as of the present time.
Of the $100,000,000 program for Turkish aid, $87,187,500 has been allocated as of December 15, $13,609,185 encumbered or allotted, and [Page 477] $910,180 obligated. With military programs the figure for encumbrances, including allotments, most closely approximates the value of goods in the pipe line and en route. The precise value of goods shipped is never known until shipping documents have been processed which involves too great a time lag for the figures to be useful for program control purposes. The figure for “obligations” lags behind the movement of goods to such an extent that it cannot be used as an approximation of shipments but is used for “accountability” purposes.
We would like to point out that expenditure in the case of the Turkish program is not prorated over a twelve-month period. The first six months of the program were given to careful planning of the goods to be procured so as to maximize the Turkish defense potential. These plans are now firm land goods will go forward at a fairly uniform rate during the balance of this fiscal year.
Sincerely yours,
- Member of the Appropriations Committee of the Senate.↩