European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - September 21, 1945, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Jutei Rcv All Over the world the army has piles of unused and unusable equipment Iran is a test Case in disposing of by Cpl Ray Mcgovern yank staff correspondent to one of the most confused snafus of the last War was the disposal of surplus army equipment after the War had in one so the Story we sold All our surplus in one european zone to the local government for a Flat the local government took what it needed of the goods then sold the remainders to american dealers who had been invited Over especially for the the local government showed a Nice profit on the Sale of the materials it didst need to begin with and the american dealers eventually collected a Businesslike profit on the goods they when they resold them to civilians Back in the nobody took a sock on the Chin except the who had put up the Money for the goods in the first place when the army bought them and in the second place when they bought the goods Back again from the to Attiat should have been nobody this Kirin of carrying on earned Uncle Sam a reputation As a soft touch to avoid any repetition of the world War i snafu several agencies were set up in Washington Early in this last wars surplus looks like a Molehill compared with the staggering piles of equipment that world War ii leaves in its and this time the equipment is scattered All Over the face of the the agencies have Laid out their plans for disposal of this equipment and the plans Are now getting a preview performance in the territory of the recently disbanded persian Gulf in As the disposal Falls under the authority of the surplus property Board which was formed in 1944 when Congress passed a surplus property act providing Basic rules and regulations for the disposal of our War remain overseas disposal is handled by the army Navy liquidation Thomas onetime president of the Scott paper and a Veteran of service in the lend lease Mccabe Deputy is Don Ald former cd in the persian and the assistant commissioner is rear the Threeman Board operates under the War and Navy in John Stetson of the hat com Pany is Field commissioner for the Central author in other other Field commissioners will be named by Mccabe and his Stetson Job is to get rid of the surplus property in Iran in such a manner that the will appear As neither a sucker nor a profiteer and everyone will be the first step is deciding what property is sur the overseas procedure has no connection Page 22 Stetson in purchasing our until a prime minister and his Cabinet receive such a it is doubtful that any headway can be any agreement will have to reach a decision regarding the kind of Money to be used in our transactions with if the iranian government wants to use its own the at wont be Able to use the rials it receives except to buy goods from if the iranians pay in they Are drawing capital out of their own foreign Exchange this Money problem is in no Way Peculiar to it is our economists and the Treasury department Are working hard to figure a fair and practical Way to create dollars so that countries which Are Short of them will be Able to buy from but Iran is in Good condition to acquire what Ever it May in movable equipment or in no movable property such As our Large army the Normal Trade won t be restored in the Middle East for some time and with the practice in the i except that both must follow the Basic provisions of the surplus prop erty the War department screens All items to be left by the indicates those it wants to and declares the rest surplus to the needs of the War when the theater commander gets this he notifies the Field commissioner As to what items Are sur and the real Job in Stetson and his executive Kenneth face some problems that Are Peculiar to the Middle but in the main their Job is a Cross Section of what May be in store for All such overseas the Mission of the War goods to off slowly Many months before it was finally declared shortly after the announcement was approximately in property was in the hands of the Field whose area includes Iraq As Well As the command area in trucks and spare parts make up More than half the goods so far declared other picked at random for their Are Higgins can and drum manufacturing hand and machine Mosquito Road building medical generators and ice making and water purifying some of the goods have been sold and carted no great difficulty is expected in disposing of the rest at a just but so far the greatest potential the government of has not been in the since the feels a moral responsibility to give Iran a Chance to the disposal program is momentarily slowed Down to a snails in addition to the iranian government and individual iranian manufacturers and there Are other potentially Large the United nations Relief and rehabilitation administration has its Eye on some of the of to the and to the Are both in the a number of manufacturers whose trademarked articles have been declared surplus would like to buy them in some they want to control their own foreign markets and the retail prices of their products in they want to keep a deteriorated product from reaching the the american red Cross and a number of charitable institutions with offices in the Middle East want some of the and so the complications that have slowed Down our dealing with the iranian government Are both political and to begin for several months the iranians have not had a Cabinet with which we could a succession of prime ministers failed to win the necessary vote of Confidence in the majlis parliament so Iran was unable to set up an Agency to Deal with is hungry for finished goods there has been practically no import Trade in the country since the joint Russia British occupation in the activities of the commissioner Are closely tied in with the embassy Here so that All government agencies May work in there Are More Tricky angles to the Job than meet the Stetson and his aides must not Only know who is but they must know what the probable effect of every Purchase will they must know what buyers May de serve a break in obtaining the goods they want what sales Are Likely to bring on Adverse criticism from the taxpayer at then there is the Black a consider Able amount of army surplus could be sold through this Channel at a fancy profit even Over the Price the army paid for it when it was but such sales could and probably would play Hel with the Economy of this could very Well mean the loss of iranian Friendship for the More than foreign economic difficulties have a habit of spreading their effects throughout the whole also to be kept in mind Are american labor and if the commissioner Sells beat up trucks at an inflated the foreign once he realizes he has been wont be in the mood to buy any More american vehicles when he is again in the Market for multiply one dealer by All those Likely to be involved in disposing of Worth of prop erty and you have a Nice potential Reservoir of ill will if things Are gis who Are not directly involved in the liquidation Deal still have a Sharp curiosity about what is going they take a watch dog of the Treasury they figure that they Are taxpayers and have a stake in the out some of them want to buy some of the equipment for they have the Needle when think something is fouled for gis in the commissioners office like Wallace Stetson right hand who studied marketing at the University of Wisconsin school of is making the most of his he thinks the whole thing will give him a Good subject for a thesis towards his masters degree in the government at Home is getting an almost play play description of the Way things Are working in snags that develop which have not been anticipated by Washington Are studied so that other army Navy Field commissioners will be Hep in terms of Stetson experience when liquidation begins in their the in Iran is just a Small trickle of the flood which will be let go in the the flood which will have to be controlled by army Navy commissioners abroad if it is notto break its levees and swamp a Good Section of our world