In the course of the committee's first studies, a conference was held at New York City with personnel at the New York District Office of the Corps of Army Engineers. It was an informal meeting to discuss in a preliminary manner aspects of the transfer problem. A summary of the conference follows:

"The principal impression derived from this meeting by the committee representatives is that the federal officials are definitely interested in the possibility of the transfer of the canal, or portions of it, to the Federal government. They are waiting to explore all possible avenues of procedure to achieve this end and are very much aware of the manifold problems that such a transfer would present. They do not in any way desire to assume dominion over internal matters pertaining to water use, such as irrigation, water power, and the like. In fact, they would prefer to leave those problems to the state government."