The committee held exhaustive hearings and developed a great deal of testimony from the Secretary of the Navy, naval officers, and civilian sponsors of the sites under consideration.

The committee obtained opinions and testimony from those persons best qualified in airship matters and in the other factors affecting the selection of a site.

The need for a base from which airships can cooperate with the fleet in the Pacific was very forcefully presented to the committee. The new airship now under construction should be assigned to this base if it can be made ready by the time this airship is completed.

The site recommended has natural advantages that give it a good measure of protection, while at the same time it is centrally located with reference to that area in which airships must operate in time of

war.

The committee from its own knowledge, and from previous reports, as well as from testimony in the present instance, was greatly impressed with the importance of the San Francisco Bay area as an airship base from the standpoint of the missions which the airship would be required to perform especially in time of war. The importance of this area has been stressed many times in connection with the establishment of a naval base on the west coast, and the same reasons are present in selecting a base for airships.

Weather conditions at the site were shown by carefully analyzed data to be favorable to airship operations, especially in regard to the important factors of constancy of wind direction and a minimum of gusts.

The site is close to naval activities in the San Francisco Bay area, and the surrounding territory offers large labor and industrial markets as well as material and engineering resources. The site is readily accessible by water, rail, and highway.

The physical characteristics of the site are excellent and will facilitate construction of a base at a minimum cost. Adequate water supply is available. Annual maintenance costs should be reasonable.

As a result of its careful study, the committee finds that the site at Sunnyvale, Santa Clara County, Calif., is excellent for the purposes required. It is superior as to location, strength, and resources. Weather conditions are favorable for the efficient operation of airships. Physical characteristics are excellent and offer possibilities for future expansion.

Responsible civic organizations headed by the San Francisco Chamber of Commerce have offered to the United States Government gratis a title in fee simple to 1,000 acres of land at the Sunnyvale location.

Accordingly, the committee recommends the enactment of H. R.

6810.

A detailed estimate of the improvements necessary and proper for a lighter-than-air base will be found in House Document 132, Seventyfirst Congress, second session. These improvements will cost not to exceed $5,000,000.

The following letter from the Acting Secretary of the Navy addressed to the chairman of the Committee on Naval Affairs gives the views and recommendation of the department and is hereby made a part of this report:

NAVY DEPARTMENT, Washington, January 31, 1930.

The CHAIRMAN COMMITTEE ON NAVAL AFFAIRS,

House of Representatives, Washington, D. C. MY DEAR MR. CHAIRMAN: Replying further to the committee's letter of December 7, 1929, transmitting the bill (H. R. 6810) authorizing the Secretary of the Navy to accept, without cost to the Government of the United States, a lighter-than-air base near Sunnyvale, in the county of Santa Clara, State of California, and construct necessary improvements thereon, and requesting the views and recommendations of the Navy Department thereon, I have the honor to inform the committee as follows:

The purpose of this bill is to authorize the Secretary of the Navy to accept on behalf of the United States 1,000 acres of land near Sunnyvale, in the county of Santa Clara, Calif., and to construct thereon a naval air station.

In accordance with the provisions of the act of March 2, 1929 (45 Stat. 1530), the Secretary of the Navy appointed a west coast naval airship base board to examine and report upon such locations as may be deemed most suitable for the establishment of a naval airship base. The board made a careful investigation and study of many sites on the west coast which appeared suitable as to physical and other requirements for such a base. The board submitted their report to the Secretary of the Navy stating as a conclusion that sites at Sunnyvale and Camp Kearny, both in California, are the locations most suitable for the establishment of the base. Four members of the board recommended that the base be established at Sunnyvale, and one member of the board recommended that the base be established at Camp Kearny.

After receipt of the board's report, the Secretary of the Navy referred it to the General Board and this board, considering the questions with these two specific sites in mind, found that Camp Kearny, which is in the Los Angeles-San Diego area, fulfilled the vital requirements for a naval airship base better than Sunnyvale, which is located farther to the north, the strategic location of Camp Kearny more than compensating for any other advantages which Sunnyvale might have.

The Navy Department on December 4, 1929, transmitted to Congress the report of the west coast naval airship base board, and recommended that Camp Kearny be the site selected. This report has been printed as House Document No. 132.

The bill H. R. 6810, if enacted, will result in an additional cost to the Navy of not to exceed $5,000,000.

The bill H. R. 6810 was referred to the Bureau of the Budget with the above information and a statement that the Navy Department contemplated recommending that either the bill H. R. 6810 or a similar bill, H. R. 6808, now pending in the House of Representatives, which provides for the acquisition of the Camp Kearny site, be enacted. Under date of January 10, 1930, the Director of the Bureau of the Budget advised the Navy Department that the proposed report regarding these two bills is not in conflict with the financial program of the President.

In view of the above the Navy Department recommends that either the bill H. R. 6808 or H. R. 6810 be enacted.

AGRICULTURAL MARKETING REVOLVING FUND

DECEMBER 18, 1930.-Committed to the Committee of the Whole House on the state of the Union and ordered to be printed

Mr. Wood, from the Committee on Appropriations, submitted the following

REPORT

[To accompany H. R. 15359]

The Committee on Appropriations, to which was referred the bill (H. R. 15359) making an additional appropriation to carry out the provisions of the agricultural marketing act, approved June 15, 1929, reports the same without amendment and with a favorable recommendation.

The amount recommended to be appropriated is $150,000,000 to be expended in accordance with, and for the purposes specified in the agricultural marketing act, and to become a part of the revolving fund to be administered by the Federal Farm Board as provided in such act. The amount recommended is pursuant to and based upon a Budget estimate submitted to Congress by the President in House Document No. 668 of the present session.

The agricultural marketing act authorized a total appropriation of $500,000,000 to be used as a revolving fund for the making of loans to cooperatives and stabilization corporations. Up to the present time appropriations have been made in the aggregate of $250,000,000. The amount carried in this bill brings the total up to $400,000,000. and an estimate of $100,000,000 is pending for the independent offices appropriation bill for the next fiscal year, which, when granted, will bring the total appropriations up to the full authorization of $500,000,000.

The revolving fund authorized by the act now consists of the appropriations already made of $250,000,000 and the amounts returned to the fund through the repayment of loans and payments of interest. As of December 13, 1930, the board had made commitments against the fund totaling $376,013,974.40, under which moneys have been advanced totaling $338,996,508.71. The balance in the revolving fund as of that date was $39,128,197.67, of which $37,017,465.69 was obligated by commitments approved by the board and the free balance available for new commitments was only $2,110,731.98.