UA-R-GC-1914-01-01-1967-06-15_Page-003

I I I - 3 - in conjunction with AID and the State Department had met with Chairmen and members of the Senate and House Foreign AffaIrs Committees. For all practical purposes these meetings completed congressional clearance of the Pound Fund project. Even those Senators and Congressmen wHo opposed any assistance to the United Arabic RepublTc as such expressed approval of the Pound Fund for the Unlverstty. In the following few days an instrument of transfer had been drawn up and had not war broken out it appeared that the Pound Fund would be a reality within a matter of a few weeks. Following the meetings on Capitol Hill he and Dr. Bartlett had also met in New York with a Foundation Head, with whom conversations had previously taken place, and a gift of One Million Dollars had been offered the Uni­versity. Discussions had then taken place with the Foundation's counsel to work out the details of the gift. These discussions were going on at the very time when hostilities broke out. Immediately after the war began, Mr. Barco had been infonned by the State Department that the Department gave first priority to the University's going on in Egypt. He had told the Department that he felt certain that the Board of Trustees would have the same interest Tn maintaining the University but that the circumstances we now found ourselves in would put unusual strains on our financial position and that unusual help would undoubtedly be needed. He felt that the disposition in the State Department and AID would be to respond to our requirements to the maximum extent possible. Mr. Barco thought that the University was probably fortunate that the Pound Fund had not been transferred to the University at the time the war broke out. Such a large American governmental commitment to the University might have encouraged Egyptian authorities to take action stronger than temporary sequestration