Cong., 1st sess.). A bill (H. R. 2294) was introduced during the year which if enacted would provide a uniform code of descent of restricted Indian lands. Legislation establishing a new technique in securing repayment of construction charges on Indian irrigation projects was favored by the Division. Act of July 14, 1945 (Public Law 149, 79th Cong., 1st sess.).

The work of the Indian Division during the. year relating to war activities involved the giving of legal advice and the review of correspondence, leases, permits and other agreements looking to the discovery and development of strategtic minerals and the utilization of Indian and public lands for military purposes and increased food production. Several hundred thousand acres of virgin land in Wyoming, Montana and other States were placed under geological and geophysical prospecting permits during the year.

DURING most of the 1945 fiscal year the Division of Information was still occupied largely with keeping the public acquainted with the Department's single-minded efforts to supply the essentials of war unstintingly from the Nation's natural resources. Before the year's end, however, with the collapse of the Nazi regime and with unmistakable signs of a similar denouement in the Pacific, the Division began to prepare for a shift of emphasis from the profligate expenditure of nature's treasures to the Department's traditional policy of conservation.

Just as foresight had prepared the Department for an immediate shift to a war basis before nightfall on Pearl Harbor Day, plans had been in the making for more than a year against the possibility of an immediate peace.

Thus, while still conforming to Office of War Information and other wartime security regulations in the handling of such informational programs as the Solid Fuels Administration for War, in exercising judicious restraint in disseminating information regarding the important war-related work of the Bureau of Mines, the Geological Survey and other agencies, the Division was getting ready to resume its peacetime activities that so long had lain dormant.

For example, the Division originated and prepared a comprehensive series of articles dealing with the Department's plan to proceed with postwar construction and conservation programs designed to give employment to veterans equivalent to 1,500,000 man-years of work over the first 10 postwar years. This material was published, with appropriate illustrations, in whole or in part by at least a score of nationally circulated magazines.

Before the end of the year the Division also was responsible for writing and publishing a pamphlet entitled "Our Last Land Frontiers," designed as a guide to veterans in their desires to settle on public lands both in continental United States and Alaska. This booklet proved to be one of the most popular ever issued by the Department with 20,000 copies being distributed by the Department

alone, and many other thousands through veterans' organizations, and through separation centers of the armed forces.

In addition to the booklet, the Division prepared a synopsis in popular form which was published by several national syndicates serving several thousand daily and weekly newspapers and by a dozen or more nationally circulated magazines.

These are merely examples of the directional work of the Division designed to integrate the informational programs of the Department's various bureaus and offices having to do with the development and wise use of such natural assets of the Nation as metals, power, fuel, helium, food, land, timber, and fisheries.

In other words, the Division continued to function as the directing and coordinating office of the Department through which all informational material is channeled from the bureaus to the public. This applies not only to day-to-day press releases of general circulation but also to books and pamphlets prepared by the Bureaus on specialized subjects, over which general printing supervision is exercised by the Publications Section.

The Division was also responsible for the editing, designing the format and supervision of the printing of the Secretary's annual report, as well as for the publication of Inside Interior, a monthly newspaper intended to keep the Department's own employees abreast of its activities.

There were no appreciable changes in the organization set-up of the Division, consisting of the Director's office, Radio, Publications, and Photographic Sections, although some changes in assignment of duties have been effected as changing conditions required.

RADIO SECTION

Throughout the year the Radio Section, operating the only modern broadcasting and recording studios in the Government, continued its intensified war service to most war-engaged Federal agencies, under the general supervision of the Director of Information.

Extensive and almost constant use was made of the studio's facilities by the Office of Strategic Services and by the Army and Navy in the preparation of secret programs having to do with psychological warfare. Special training programs were recorded for use in every theater of operation, and, toward the end of the fiscal year, recordings were already begun for use in demobilization work on ships and in Army centers of concentration.

Numerous live programs, as well as recordings, were prepared and broadcast through these facilities for overseas use by the Office of War Information and other agencies affiliated with it. In this work as

In addition, special programs, spot announcements, and other material for broadcast were produced for such departmental agencies as the Solid Fuels Administration for War and the War Relocation Authority.

One of the outstanding jobs performed by the Radio Section was the complete production of a series of six 15-minute recordings entitled "This Is Puerto Rico," prepared under the auspices of the insular Government of Puerto Rico. This series, an educational and documentary feature, was designed for use in more than 2,500 high schools of the country to acquaint the rising generation with this. American outpost in the Caribbean.

PUBLICATIONS SECTION

The enlarged functions, begun last year, by which the Publications Section is made responsible not only for the procurement of printing but also for editorial content and format of bureau publications, have been continued with obvious success.

Not only have important economies been effected by centering in this section the power to reject faulty or undesirable manuscripts, but better design and more attractive publications have resulted. There is still much to be done in presenting to the public a better-rounded set of publications on the Department's activities. But a good start has been made and further improvements will be accomplished as the Department gets into its stride of peacetime work.

PHOTOGRAPHIC SECTION

While the major portion of the Photographic Section's efforts were devoted to furnishing photographs and other illustrations to Department agencies directly concerned with the war, it also began preparations for enlarged activities in anticipation of peace.

Toward the end of the year, for example, the Division compiled and published a listing of about 1,000 background photographs selected from many thousands of negatives in the Department's photographic files. The list of selected photographs, depicting historic landmarks and other subjects of permanent interest to students of the Nation's natural resources, was furnished to editors of important newspapers, magazines, and photographic syndicates as a backlog of available. illustrative material upon which they are privileged to draw in connection with stories or articles dealing with any of a large number of subjects within the Department's purview.

During the year the Division also inaugurated a fortnightly News Picture Service, by means of which photographs of current interest are distributed to about a score of news picture syndicates, illustrated feature services, magazines, and newspapers. Thus, the Department,