Wr. James FP. May 2 Hume obtained from a discussion of these Browning, will send it along to you 5, 1944 matters with the Messrs. for what it may be worth. In Mr. Browning's letter of May 3, i944 it will be noted that he states that the origins and basic principles of all the recoil operated machine guns are the same and that it can well be said that no change or modification, excepting of a comparably minor nature, has been made since they were originally designed. Also that the development of these guns to their present state of efficiency has not cost the United States Government one red cent, apart from royalties to ourselves and Coit's. He is particularly speaking about the contribution made by the United States Government to such improvements. As you know, both Colt's and the Brownings have been working continuously upon improvements and refinements, etc., which have been made in these guns. in our phone conversation of May 3rd we mentioned Messrs. Gorton, Greene and Hatcher. I asked Mr. Val Browning about these gentiemen and find that Mr. Gorton and Mr. Hatcher are officers in the United States army in the Ordnance Department. Wr. Greene, or Doctor Greene, is a civilian employee of the War Department in Urdnance and at the close of world war one, occupied a desk in Washington opposite Mr. Yal Browning. You have no doubt learned from Colt's the extent of the contribution of these gentlemen and any royalties paid by Colt's to them represents a transaction between the three gentlemen and Colt's. The United States Government pays them a salary to handle certain ordnance matters. Me. Val Browning also stated that the only expense he knew of that the United States Government could possibly be put to in connection with machine gun and automatic cannon development, would be for the regular routine inspections which they are constantly making in plants producing armament. As the Brownings do not receive royalty covering mounts, any improvements made by Messrs. Gorton, Greene or Hatcher would not be, it seems, involved in our present case. The other contributions made do not represent a real improvement or refinement in the guns, in the opinion of the Brownings. Possibly tact will cause us to refrain from stating this to the Ordnance Department. In the light of the turn our case has taken, from the standpoint of the value of the contribution of Brownings and Colt's to the war effort, we all feel quite hopeful about the outcome, especially when consideration is given to the fact that the total cost of $6,645,232.67 is reduced by approximately seventy-five percent through the payment of Federal income taxes. tionis not given to this particular phase of the case, surely the cost to the Government is extremely low. It was my definite reaction, in the discussion which