OCR Text |
Show DISCREPANCY IN PORTRAIT VOUCHER FOUND IN 1936 WASHINGTON, Jun 17. Thomas Morrison, disbursing dark of th stmt department, told th nous eonftnltt on xpna.turea In that department that h hd been I net rue ted. whan th mlaatng voucher la tha Day portrait caa, under investigation, waa found oa th floor of hla of fie a few days ago, to keep a till about th discovery. This Instruction, ha said, was giver him by Wilbur J. Carr, chief of tha consular con-sular bureau. Th discloaur waa mad whaa Chalr-arvsn Chalr-arvsn Hamlin asked him If he had made any further attempt alnce hia examination examina-tion a few days ago to dlaeovr hew the long missing voucher cam to be on th floor of hia ofrh-e. Ti.e eerluua view taken of th matter by stale department officials was reflected re-flected in a copy of a letter trom Charles Denny, consul general at Vienna, 'former chidf Herk of tn state department under fecrefcirv Root. Secretary Knox submit tel this letter, dated Vienna. May SO, 1911. Diccovered in 1906. Mr.-Denby wrot that the voucher discrepancy dis-crepancy was discovered In 190C when t department negotiated for a portrait f Secretary Hay. and that prior to the !or.t reclm It was customary to Include In one voucher smsll sums paid for sv-rat sv-rat expenses atioted to the department to he expended at th secretary's discretion. dis-cretion. As to th result of an Investigation eon-di eon-di eted by the department in 1904, which Mr. Den by says was never known outald vt the department, th former chief dark reported. ' How far th alleged lrregularltl In the ue of the particular fund In question ques-tion were within th know led of Secretary Sec-retary Hay could not be ascertained, as he died in 1906, in which year also Mr. Michael want as consul to Calcutta. Such practice were not continued under Secretary Sec-retary Roof, but report wer brought to mv knowledge, as chief clerk, that th practice had existed previously. . , No Official Action Taken. "In view of th entire lack of reliable firoof of misappropriating of funds, th nevltable. unpleasant criticism of the administration ad-ministration of an honored man which would result In public action, the Incident was passed ovr and no official action waa taksn." . Mr. Morrison explained further that on the day he paid the $UM In cash tc former Chief Clerk Michael on June II, 1904, h had ordered hia clerk to lnart the words "two thousand 'four hundred and fifty dollar' In th printed voucher, and that half an hour afUr he had paid th money to Michael he Inquired what the payment waa for and waa told In Michael s office that It waa for the Day portrait. Then he Instructed th clerk to write on the voucher that It waa for the Day portrait. Notations on the back which appeared later referring to emert Iency paymenta for diplomatic buslneas, Lr. Morrison said were not on the voucher that day. |