-2-                             
 
 
representative of the Department of the Interior as required by the
provisions of the Helium Act, appear to me to provide ample safeguards
of the nature of those which the amendments to the sales regulations
are apparently designed to afford.  Moreover, these amendments would
appear to impose unnecessarily onerous burdens upon prospective
purchasers so that their application might operate to defeat the intent
of the Helium Act in respect to the advancement of commercial aviation
by airships and the policy of this Government as indicated by the
letter signed by the Secretaries of State, War, the Navy, Commerce, and
the Interior which was transmitted by the President to the Chairmen of
the Military Affairs Committees of both Houses of Congress with an
expression of his approval; by the granting of an allotment of
17,900,000 cubic feet of helium to American Zeppelin Transport,
Incorporated, with the unanimous approval of all the members of the
National Munitions Control Board and the Secretary of the Interior, as
required by the provisions of the Helium Act; by the action of the
Department of Commerce in approving the proposed schedule of flights by
the 
LS-130
; and by the action of the Navy Department in leasing terminal
facilities at Lakehurst for that airship.  In view of these facts,
would it not seem that these amendments are both unnecessary and
undesirable?
 
 
Furthermore, these amendments might be held to constitute an
encroachment on the jurisdiction of the National Munitions Control
Board as that jurisdiction is defined in Section 4 of the act.  The
effect of the amendments would apparently be to control, and perhaps
even to prevent, the exportation of helium although the responsiblity
for the control of exportation rests, under the terms of the act, upon
a group of six Cabinet officers rather than upon one alone.
 
 
You may agree with me that it would be advisable to submit the question
raised by this apparent conflict of jurisdiction to the Attorney
General for his decision.  If, however, you find, after further
consideration, that my position in regard to this matter is well
founded, it is possible that you may wish to recommend to the President
that the ammendments be rescinded.
 
 
The letters addressed to you by the Secretaries of War and of the Navy
on April 27 and April 29, respectively, would appear to confirm in full
the statements referred to in my letter addressed to you on April 5 to
the effect that "safeguards already provided by the Helium Act and by
the export regulations issued thereunder would seem to be