Washington » Getting funds from Congress this year for the East-West Center is going to be a tough job, Representative Daniel K. Inouye warned today.
The Hawaii Democrat said he planned to meet later in the day with Phillip H. Coombs, assistant secretary of state for educational and cultural affairs, to urge a speeding up of the East-West Center study by his recently named consultants.
Inouye said the report should be completed and acted on by Coombs by the third week of May or funds for the Hawaii project will have little chance of being added to the State Department appropriations bill in the Senate.
"Our only recourse then would be a supplemental appropriation and the Congress is most reluctant to vote money late in the session for projects such as ours," said Inouye.
Inouye said Coombs was well acquainted with the Hawaii project and recalled he was "one of the original advisers" of Vice-President Lyndon B. Johnson on establishing the East-West Center.
"I merely want to point out we have a few problems and urge on him the necessity of speeding up the consultants’ study," the Congressman explained.
Inouye said he understood that Dr. Glen L. Taggert, dean of the international programs at Michigan State University, who will assist the consultants, will arrive in Hawaii soon.
He said the consultants — President Clark Kerr of the University of California, President Herman B. Wells of Indiana University and President John Gardiner of the Carnegie Foundation — will meet in New York next week on the Hawaii project. Then they will come to Washington for a few days before flying to Hawaii to complete their investigation, he said.
The three Center consultants will meet with Laurence H. Snyder, president of the University of Hawaii, tomorrow in New York City, according to the Center’s acting director.
Murray Turnbull, acting director, said today that he expects the consultants to come to Hawaii the end of next week, although he has not received final confirmation from any of them.
He also said Taggert is expected to arrive in Honolulu Sunday "to begin work on Monday."
