as may be appropriated to such fund and of moneys and receipts credited thereto as herein provided. There are hereby authorized to be appropriated to such fund such sums as may be necessary to carry out the provisions of this subtitle. All moneys received from premiums and from salvage or other recoveries, and all receipts in connection with this subtitle, shall be deposited to the credit of such fund. Payments of return premiums, losses, settlements, judgments, and all liabilities incurred by the United States under this subtitle shall be made from such fund.

"SEC. 222. The Commission may insure against loss or damage by the risks of war, persons, property, or interests, as follows:

"(a) (1) American vessels (including vessels under construction), (2) vessels registered under the law of the Philippine Islands, (3) foreign-flag vessels owned by citizens of the United States (as said term 'citizens' is used in Public Law 173, Seventy-seventh Congress, approved July 14, 1941) or owned or controlled by, or made available to, the United States or any department or agency thereof, and (4) any foreign-flag vessel not owned or controlled or made available as described in clause (3) hereof, but engaged in the water-borne foreign commerce of the United States or other transportation by water or other vessel services deemed by the Commission to be in the interest of the war effort or the domestic economy of the United States, while so engaged.

"(b) Cargoes shipped or to be shipped on any vessels specified in subsection (a), including shipments by express or registered mail. "(c) The disbursements (including advances to masters and general average disbursements) and freight and passage moneys of such vessels.

"(d) The personal effects of the masters, officers, and crews of such vessels, and of other persons transported on such vessels.

"(e) Masters, officers, and crews of such vessels and other persons employed or transported thereon against loss of life, personal injury, or detention by an enemy of the United States following capture.

"(f) Statutory or contractual obligations or other liabilities of such vessels or of the owner or charterer of such vessels of the nature customarily covered by insurance.

"SEC. 223. The Commission may reinsure, in whole or in part, any company authorized to do an insurance business in any State of the United States, on account of marine and marine war risks, including protection and indemnity risks, assumed by any such company, on persons, property, and interests specified in section 222 of this subtitle, and may reinsure with, or cede or retrocede to, any such company any war risk insured pursuant to such section 222, or any marine or war risk reinsured with the Commission as hereinbefore provided. No insurance broker or other person acting in a similar intermediary capacity shall be paid any fee or other consideration by the Commission by virtue of his participation in arranging any insurance wherein the Commission directly insures any of the risk thereof. Reinsurance shall not be provided by the Commission at rates less than (1) the rates established by the Commission on the same or similar risks or (2) the rates charged by the insurance carrier for the insurance so reinsured, whichever

is the higher, except that the Commission may make to the insurance carrier such allowance for taxes, commissions, and other customary expenses (not to exceed 5 per centum of the premiums paid for that portion of the direct insurance so reinsured) as it may deem reasonably to accord with good business practice.

"SEO. 224. (a) Any department or agency of the United States is hereby authorized to procure insurance from the Commission as provided for in section 222 of this subtitle, except as provided in the Government Losses in Shipment Act, approved July 8, 1937, as amended (50 Stat. 479; U. S. C., Supp. VI, title 5, secs. 134 to 134h). "(b) The Commission is authorized to provide such insurance at the request of the Secretary of War or the Secretary of the Navy on a nominal premium basis in consideration of the agreement of the department concerned to indemnify the Commission against all losses covered by such insurance, and the Secretary of War or the Secretary of the Navy is authorized to execute such indemnity agreement with the Commission.

"SEO. 225. In the event of disagreement as to a claim for losses or the amount thereof, on account of insurance under this subtitle, an action on the claim may be brought and maintained against the United States in the district court of the United States sitting in admiralty in the district in which the claimant or his agent may reside, or in case the claimant has no residence in the United States, in a district court in which the Attorney General of the United States shall agree to accept service. Said suits shall proceed and shall be heard and determined according to the provisions of an Act entitled 'An Act authorizing suits against the United States in admiralty, suits for salvage services, and providing for the release of merchant vessels belonging to the United States from arrest and attachment in foreign jurisdictions, and for other purposes', approved March 9, 1920, as amended (known as the Suits in Admiralty Act), insofar as such provisions are not inapplicable and are not contrary to or inconsistent with the provisions of this subtitle.

"SEC. 226. (a) The Commission in the administration of this subtitle is authorized to adjust and pay losses, compromise and settle claims whether in favor of or against the Government, and to pay the amount of any judgment rendered in respect of any suit or settlement agreed upon in respect of any claim. The determinations of the Commission with respect to adjustments, compromises, settlements, and payments hereunder shall not be subject to review by any other executive or accounting officer of the Government.

"(b) The Commission is authorized to prescribe such forms and policies, to change or modify such forms and policies as may be necessary or appropriate under the circumstances, and to fix and adjust, as may be required by circumstances, the rates and changes of rates of insurance provided for in this subtitle.

"(c) The Commission is authorized and directed to prescribe such rules and regulations as may be necessary or appropriate to carry out the provisions of this subtitle. The Commission is authorized, in administering the provisions of this subtitle, to exercise its powers, perform its duties and functions, and make its expenditures, in accordance with commercial practice in the marine insurance business

"(d) The Commission, without regard to the laws, rules, or regulations relating to the employment of employees of the United States, may appoint and prescribe the duties of such number of experts in marine insurance as the Commission may deem necessary in carrying out the provisions of this subtitle. The Commission, with the consent of any executive department, independent establishment, or other agency of the Government, including any field service thereof, may avail itself of the use of information, services, facilities, officers, and employees thereof in carrying out the provisions of this subtitle.

(e) The Commission shall include in the annual report to Congress a detailed statement of all activities and of all expenditures and receipts under this subtitle for the period covered by such report. "(f) When used in this subtitle

"(1) The term 'American vessels' includes any vessel registered, enrolled, or licensed under the laws of the United States and any undocumented vessel owned or chartered by or made available to the United States or any department or agency thereof and any American-owned tug or barge or other watercraft (documented or undocumented) used in essential water transportation or in the fishing trade or industry. This subsection shall not be construed as including any watercraft used exclusively in or for sport fishing.

"(2) The term 'transportation in the water-borne commerce of the United States' shall be deemed to include the operation of vessels in the fishing trade or industry.

"SEC. 227. Nothing in this subtitle shall be deemed to affect the rights of seamen under any provision of existing law.

"SEC. 228. In conformity with the President's Executive order of February 7, 1942 (Numbered 9054; 7 F. R. 837), the authority conferred upon the Commission by this subtitle shall be vested in and exercised by the Administrator of the War Shipping Administration."

Approved, April 11, 1942.

[CHAPTER 91-2D SESSION]

[S. J. Res. 78]

JOINT RESOLUTION

To provide cash awards to personnel of the Maritime Commission and the War Shipping Administration for useful suggestions to improve administration of their activities.

Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That the United States Maritime Commission is authorized to pay cash awards for suggestions submitted to it by any of its officers or employees in cases where the suggestion, in the opinion of the Commission or of a committee designated by it, would, if adopted, make for substantially increased efficiency, economy, or general improvement in carrying out the duties, powers, or functions of the Commission. Such suggestions shall be submitted and such awards shall be made under such rules and regulations as the Commission may prescribe, including provision for transfer to the United States of all rights or interests of the officer or employee in the suggestion. The provisions of this section shall apply in like manner to the War Shipping Administration and its officers and employees, and for the purpose of this section the terms "United States Maritime Commission" and "Commission" shall be deemed to refer to the War Shipping Administration. The total amount of cash awards made under this joint resolution in any fiscal year shall not exceed $5,000 for each such agency, and the amount paid for any one suggestion shall not exceed $250 for any one suggestion, except in case of a patentable idea, it may be not more than $1,000.

Approved March 13, 1944.

[CHAPTER 304-2D SESSION]

[H. R. 6932]

AN ACT

To establish the composition of the United States Navy, to authorize the construction of certain naval vessels, and for other purposes.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That the authorized composition of the United States Navy in under-age vessels, as established by the Act of March 27, 1934 (48 Stat. 503), as amended by the Acts of May 17, 1938 (52 Stat. 401), June 14, 1940 (54 Stat. 394), July 19, 1940 (54 Stat. 779), and December 23, 1941 (Public Law 369, Seventy-seventh Congress, first session), is hereby further increased by two hundred thousand tons of combatant ships. SEC. 2. The President of the United States is hereby authorized to provide the total under-age composition authorized in section 1 of this Act, including replacements thereof as authorized by the Act of March 27, 1934 (48 Stat. 503), by undertaking the construction of combatant ships of such types and tonnages as he determines to be necessary for the successful prosecution of the war.

SEC. 3. There is hereby authorized to be appropriated, out of any money in the Treasury of the United States not otherwise appropriated, such sums as may be necessary to effectuate the purposes of this Act.

Approved, May 13, 1942.