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Wednesday 28th March
Washington

Long awaited discussion with Bowles.  Purpose, to bring Dr. B. up to date  on committee activities and to get his concurrence on the policy under which we are working; that is, to put primary effort on the first phase with respect to time (immediate problems which will be useful for the Pacific war, and which involve only equipment now on the shelf);  and his concurrence on additional personnel for committee work and for staff work. q

He did not seem pleased with the policy on priority of work, mainly because he was afraid we would get into operating problems which would occupy more than our entire time and prevent us from doing the long range planning which he thinks is our first object. He feels we should go ahead on the broad picture and if we [[strikethrough]]finnd[[/strikethrough]]find jobs which can be done easily, also a man we can put on that job without stealing from this office, and also, if the agency involved wants the job done, then it is all ok to go ahead with the practical job but consider it as a by-product of the main job.  This is rather a change from the policy Dr. Stratton and I had been working. on.

Dr. Stratton set up a meeting of the working portion of the committee for next Wednesday for the purpose of presenting Herbst's program of activities for the committee. I feel that Herbst has gone to a lot of trouble to draw up a program which already is in operation here and several items are already partly done. This indicates a need for better communications with Herbst, Stratton, and other members.

The whole conference left me rather unhappy and dissatisfied. Feel  I must get straightened out with Dr. Stratton tomorrow. Think we all need better understanding with each other.