To avoid complications in the acquisition of flowage easements, unentered public lands bordering on these waters were withdrawn by Executive Orders Nos. 4867 and 5025, dated April 28, 1928, and January 14, 1929, respectively. The lands withdrawn from entry were ceded to the United States by the Chippewa Indians, pursuant to the Act for the Relief and Civilization of the Chippewa Indians in the State of Minnesota, approved January 14, 1889. This act provides for the collection of $1.25 for each acre of land conveyed to homesteaders and the deposit of the net proceeds in the Treasury to the credit of the Chippewa Indians as part of the fund created by section 7 of the act. There are 9,352.6 acres of ceded Indian lands bordering Lake of the Woods, Warroad River, and Rainy River affected by the easement. Included in this acreage are 3,504.40 acres for free homestead lands for which the Indians are to be paid pursuant to the act of February 9, 1925 (43 Stat. 816). The question of compensating the Indians for the easement has been studied by the responsible Federal agencies. The flowage easement has practically destroyed the prospect of the sale of any of the lands to homesteaders. Accordingly it has been determined that settlement should be made at the rate of $1.25 per acre, less any amount that may have been previously paid by the United States and for which it has not been fully reimbursed. This settlement will be in lieu of the Indians' right under the act of January 14, 1889, to receive the proceeds to the disposal of these lands. The bill has been drafted accordingly. The proposed legislation is acceptable to the Department of the Interior. It will not require any appropriation, since funds are available from appropriations heretofore made by Congress. The Director of the Bureau of the Budget has been consulted and advises that there is no objection to the submission of the proposed legislation to Congress. Sincerely yours, The SECRETARY OF WAR. HARRY H. WOODRING, DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR, MY DEAR MR. Secretary: I have received your letter of May 13 with regard to the matter of acquiring flowage easements on certain_ceded Chippewa Indian lands bordering Lake of the Woods, Warroad River, and Rainy River, as required by article VIII of the treaty of February 24, 1925 (44 Stat. 2108), between the United States and Great Britain for the purpose of regulating the level of Lake of the Woods and authorized by the act of May 22, 1926 (44 Stat. L., 617), as amended, carrying the treaty into effect. The copy of the report and recommendation of the district engineer and the copy of the proposed bill for putting said recommendations into effect have been given careful consideration. The plan of the proposed settlement is agreeable to this Department. In connection with the matter there is enclosed a copy of a memorandum from the Acting Assistant Commissioner of the General Land Office which is self-explanatory, and from which it will be seen that the Indians have already received payment for a part of the lands described in the list submitted by you. The matter of settlement or reimbursement for the acreage set forth in the report of the General Land Office as having been previously paid for, is now before the Court of Claims for determination in Case No. H-192 pending in that court. A substitute draft of a proposed bill which is acceptable to this Department has been prepared and is enclosed for your consideration. The main difference between this draft and the one submitted by you is that it provides for the revocation of Executive orders referred to in the report of the district engineer, and further provides for deduction from the amount authorized to be transferred of the value of any lands for which payment has been made and the United States has not been fully reimbursed. If this draft of the proposed bill is acceptable to you, it may be submitted to Congress for consideration. Sincerely yours, CHARLES WEST, Acting Secretary of the Interior. DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR, GENERAL LAND OFFICE, Memorandum for the Commissioner of Indian Affairs. Reference is had to the attached letter from the War Department dated May 13, and draft of legislation designed to carry into effect the recommendations of the district engineer, Canal Park, Duluth, Minn., that the Chippewa Indians be paid the statutory price of certain Red Lake Indian lands, rendered unsalable by flowage, in connection with the regulation of the level of the Lake of the Woods, Minn. There is also attached a list of the vacant ceded lands upon which flowage easements were permitted by the treaty of July 17, 1925, for which it is proposed that the Indians be paid. The list has been checked with the records of this Office, and all of the tracts listed thereon were found to be vacant except the NW NW, sec. 3, T. 167 N., R. 22 W., which was patented April 7, 1930, to Joseph McKeever, Patent No. 1035920, Cass Lake 013717. The record post-office address of the entryman in this case is Oak Island, Minn. Pursuant to the act of February 9, 1925 (43 Stat. 816), the Indians were paid for 887,149.70 acres of free homestead lands lying in the former Red Lake Reservation. The amount thus paid together with the amounts of commutation payments made by homesteaders more than equal the price of $1.25 per acre for all lands affected by said Free Homestead Act, in the Chippewa Reservations, Minn. Upon examination it was found that 3,504.40 acres of the land listed by the War Department are free homestead lands for which the Indians have been paid and, therefore, should not be paid for again. A list of such free homestead lands, in duplicate, is attached. The amount to be thus eliminated amounts to 3,504.40 acres, which together with the patented tract makes a total of 3,544.40 acres for which the Indians have already received compensation. Therefore, it is suggested that the amount to be appropriated for payment to the Indians be reduced from $11,740.75 to $7,310.25. It is indicated that when the Indians have been paid as above suggested, the War Department would have no objection to the revocation of Executive Orders Nos. 4868 and 5025, dated April 28, 1928, and January 14, 1929, respectively. It will be noted that of the lands thus released the lands for which the Indians have been paid in full would have the status of public lands and would be affected by Executive Order No. 6964, dated February 5, 1935, as amended by Executive Order No. 7363, dated May 3, 1936, by which the vacant public lands in Minnesota and 11 other States were withdrawn from settlement, location, sale, or entry (with certain exceptions) subject to valid existing rights. The revocation of said Executive Orders Nos. 4868 and 5025 would also release some lands which were not affected by flowage easements or by the free homestead law. Such lands would revert to their original status of ceded Indian trust lands, and would be affected by departmental withdrawal of September 19, 1934, made pursuant to the Wheeler-Howard Act of June 18, 1934 (48 Stat. 984), in contemplation of restoration to tribal ownership. O D. K. PARROTT, Acting Assistant Commissioner. 75TH CONGRESS HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 2d Session { REPORT No. 1654 PROVIDING FOR CONTINUING RETIREMENT PAY, UNDER CERTAIN CONDITIONS, OF OFFICERS AND FORMER OFFICERS OF ARMY, NAVY, AND MARINE CORPS OF UNITED STATES, OTHER THAN OFFICERS OF REGULAR ARMY, NAVY, OR MARINE CORPS. WHO INCURRED PHYSICAL DISABILITY WHILE IN SERVICE OF UNITED STATES DURING WORLD WAR DECEMBER 6, 1987.-Committed to the Committee of the Whole House on the state of the Union and ordered to be printed Mr. EDMISTON, from the Committee on Military Affairs, submitted the following REPORT [To accompany H. R. 8176] The Committee on Military Affairs, to whom was referred the bill (H. R. 8176) providing for continuing retirement pay, under certain conditions, of officers and former officers of the Army, Navy, and Marine Corps of the United States, other than officers of the Regular Army, Navy, or Marine Corps, who incurred physical disability while in the service of the United States during the World War, and for other purposes, having considered the same, submit the following report thereon with the recommendation that it do pass with the following amendments: On page 2, line 8, after the word "service" insert the following language: "in fact". On page 2, line 14, after the word "service" insert the following language: "in fact in line of duty". At the end of section 2, page 2, line 22, insert the following language: "No beneficiary under this Act shall receive any retirement pay for any period prior to the date of this Act." The words "in fact" and the words "in fact in line of duty" inserted in the first section have been added for the purpose of making sure that the benefits provided under this bill will apply only to those cases which are directly service connected without benefit of any statutory or regulatory presumption as to service incurrence or soundness upon entry into service. The purpose of this legislation is to return those emergency officers to the retired list with pay to whom your committee believes Congress intended to extend retirement benefits when enacting Public, No. 506, Seventieth Congress, and to whom it is believed Congress intended retirement benefits should be continued when enacting Public, No. 2, Seventy-third Congress. This bill provides that those emergency officers who served in the World War between April 6, 1917, and November 11, 1918, and who during such service incurred permanent disabilities of 30 percent or more in line of duty, shall be returned to the emergency officers' retired list, with pay, provided the disabilities are found by the Veterans' Administration to be directly service connected without benefit of statutory or regulatory presumption of service connection or statutory presumption of soundness upon entry into service. The Government reserves the right to rebut such direct service connection by official record or clear and unmistakable evidence. This legislation permits return to the retired list those who were commissioned after November 11, 1918, provided they served between April 6, 1917, and November 11, 1918, and other requirements are met. Most of those who would be restored under this provision were given commissions in recognition of their demonstrated fitness to serve as officers and as a reward for gallantry in action with the enemy. Some of those who did not accept commissions until after November 11, 1918, were in hospitals being treated for wounds and did not have an opportunity to accept until after that date. The Administrator of Veterans' Affairs, in his report to this committee on H. R. 8176, dated November 11, 1937, estimated that approximately 3,194 emergency officers who are not now on the emergency officers' retired list would be returned to the rolls under this bill if enacted. It was further stated that the estimate might be considered as a maximum, and no estimate was made as to the number that would be denied under this bill by the restrictions contained therein. It is noted that the same estimate was made in February 1937, and it is known that a number of these officers have died or have been returned to the retired list since the February estimate. It is the opinion of your committee that the estimates submitted would be materially reduced. These restrictions, your committee believes, would deny a return to the retired list of those cases which Congress intended to remove under the Economy Act and would cure any irregularities existing under the original act subsequent to the Attorney General's decision of January 18, 1929. On March 19, 1933, there were approximately 6,300 emergency officers retired with pay. After the original review under Public, No. 2, Seventy-third Congress, 1,518 remained. Some 4,700 had been removed by reason of the fact they could not meet the so-called causative-factor requirement as contained in veterans' regulation No. 5, issued March 31, 1933. On April 5, 1937, the Veterans' Administration reported that 97 of those on the retired list and 401 of those removed from the retired list under the provisions of Public, No. 2, Seventy-third Congress, had died since March 19, 1933. No doubt others have died since this report. Under the causative-factor requirement the emergency officer was asked to prove that he was performing some specific military duty under competent orders at the time of the incurrence of the disability. In the case of those whose disabilities were incurred in combat, or resulted directly from injuries, there was no trouble in establishing the causative factor. But for |