SAMPSON TO CLOSE AFTER OCTOBER 1ST

The doom of Sampson Naval Training Center was confirmed yesterday when both the House and Senate, in Washington, voted to adopt the joint conference report on the Naval Appropriation Bill for the fiscal year 1946 which entailed a reduction of funds to Sampson which would force that base to close as a training center by October 1st.

All that now remains to seal the doom of the training center is the presidential signature, the bill going to the White House today.

The appropriation provided for in the bill, which passed both houses yesterday, is one million dollars as compared with the four million necessary to continue the station until next year.

Though a supplementary appropriation may be sought, this move would have strong opposition from the House subcommittee on Naval appropriations, which recommended the cut and managed to convince the Senate committee that the discontinuance of Sampson would not disarrange Naval plans seriously.

It is understood that although the base will close as a training center, the hospital unit will remain open, later perhaps to be turned over to the Veterans' Administration which has been trying to obtain the base for use as a veterans' facility.

SAMPSON BILL IS AWAITING SIGNATURE

Taking over of the facilities at the Sampson Naval Training base by the Veterans Administration for use as a permanent hospital site seemed the only chance remaining today for the continued operation of the 60-million dollar station.

With President Truman scheduled to sign the Naval Appropriations Bill now on his desk, which provides for a three-million dollar cut in the operating funds allotted Sampson, the station is slated to cease operation as a training center after October 1.

Though the Veterans Administration was said to have been negotiating for use of the base when the original hearings on the Naval Appropriations Bill occurred before the Senate subcommittee, nothing further has been released on the subject which is probably held in abeyance until the closing of the base by the Navy becomes a fact.

Several hundred thousand dollars worth of alterations and improvements in the hospital unit of the base were recently announced as having been approved and it was regarded extremely unlikely that the base would be abandoned after the vast expenditure already invested in facilities there.