Press Release, Correspondence Between President Harry S. Truman and Senator Arthur Vandenberg and Congressman Joseph Martin

JOSIN #1206 IMMEDIATE RELEASE 255 JULY 1, 1947. The President today sent the following identical letters to the Honorable Arthur H. Vandenberg; President of the Senate pro tempore, and the Honorable Joseph W. Martin, Jr., Speaker of the House of Representatives: My dear I am transmitting a draft of bill "To provide a more satisfactory program of benefits re- lating to active service in the armed forces of the Commonwealth of the Philippines during World War II, and for other purposes. I request the early consideration of this measure by the Congress. The proposed legislation would enlarge veterans' benefits available to Philippine Army veterans who were called and ordered into the service of the armed forces of the United States pursuant to the military order of the President dated July 26, 1941. Under the provisions of the First Supplemental Surplus Appropriations Rescission Act, 1946, all veterans' benefits were taken from this group except those providing compensation for service-connected disabilities or death (which are paid on the basis of one Philippine peso for each dollar authorized) and benefits of the National Service Life Insurance Act of 1940, as amended, under contracts entered into prior to February 18, 1946. The draft submitted would revise the com- pensation benefits on a practicable basis and would restore the following classes of benefits which were taken away by the Rescission Act: (1) educational, (2) hospitalization for service-connected disability, and (3) burial and funeral allowance. Existing bene- fits under the National Service Life Insurance Act would not be altered except to extend for two years the time within which eligible persons may apply for gratuitous insurance benefits after the death of a veteran who was deemed to have been issued such in- surance under the law. This extension would not bei limited to cases involving Philippine Army veterans, but would be of general applicability. However, it is designed primarily to afford relief to the dependents of Philippine Army veterans who were unable to make the necessary applications for benefits by reason of the extended occupation of the Philippines by the enemy. The proposal also contains general administrative and penal provisions which are deemed necessary to carry out its provisions, Further details of the proposed legislation are set forth in the enclosed section by section analysis. You will recall that upon approving the Rescission Act I took exception to that portion of the Act which limited veterans! benefits available to Philippine Army veterans. istated, among other things, that enactment of that legislation did not release the United States from its moral obligation to provide for the heroic Philippine Army veterans who sacrificed so much for the common cause during the war. Practical difficulties in administering benefits to such veterans were recognized and, ac- cordingly, I referred the matter to the Secretary of War, the Administrator of Veterans' Affairs, and the United States High Commissioner to the Philippines to prepare for me a plan to meet these difficulties. (OVER)