In reply refer to
 
G-4/16494-89                                                        
 
 
G-4
 
KB
 
LCS
 
 
April 27, 1938.
 
 
The Honorable,
 
The Secretary of the Interior.
 
Dear Mr. Secretary:
 
 
Receipt in acknowledged of your letter off April 16, 1938, 
concerning the foreign sale of helium for airship inflation.
 
 
It in noted that you are unable to determine what relation
the amount of liquidated damages proposed in the joint letter 
of the Secretaries of State, War and Navy, of March 15, 1938, 
and confirmed in the letter of April 4, 1938, from this Department, 
bear to the amendment to the regulations governing the production 
and sale of helium which was prepared by your department. The 
amendment in question, although of direct concern to the War 
Department, was not referred to this Department prior to
its adoption. Had the Department been consulted in the matter, 
it would have advised against the inclusion in a commercial 
contract, for reasons substantially as stated in the letter of 
April 4, 1938, any features which sought to control military 
operations by the exaction of a forfeitable cash bond. Being 
faced with an accomplished fact which placed a certain 
responsibility upon the Secretary of War, it was felt that that 
responsibility could best be met in the manner stated in the above 
mentioned joint letter of March 15, 1938.
 
 
It is the opinion of this Department that the intent of
the Congress by its passage of the Helium Act was that helium, 
a natural commodity of which the United States has known resources 
greatly in excess of its own domestic needs, should, for humanitarian 
reasons, be made available to other nations for commercial uses. 
Certain features were included in the Act which were designed to 
safeguard the interests of the National Defenses and prevent any 
helium which might be exported under the Act from being used for 
military purposes. At the time the Act was being considered by 
Congress, the War Department carefully examined those safeguarding 
features and deemed them satisfactory for the purpose. The chief 
safeguard in this respect is the responsibility placed upon the 
National Munitions Control Board to determine whether or not exported 
helium is to be used