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THE Cou.NctL Fox Tosacco RLSLarzcx-U.S.A., INC. ~ 11U~.EAST 59Tx; STREET ~ •. ._ NEth'YORE..\.Y.10022~. June 1, 1972 Mr. Arthur J. Stevens Vice President-General Counsel Lorillard' 200iEast 42nd Street New York, New York 10017 Dear Arthur: I have your letter of May 18th, concerning the proposal relating to research discussed at the meeting of the CTR membership on January 28th. At that time it was pointed'out that the preparation of a revised statement of "gaps in knowledge" (the previous one having been prepared some three years ago) and the determination of research~priorities, if done meaningfully, would be a time-consuming process and require the personal attention of Dr. Gardher whose services would not be available untiliJuly. It was pointed out that Dr. Sommers and! other members of the Scientific Advisory Board were so limited in the time they hadlavailable for The Council that we could not expect them to prepare such a revised new statement and determine the priorities. In addition, it was noted that any plan for research must be understood to be subject to change as new knowledge is gained and new ideas generated. The problems coneerning,the scientific program of The Council relate to biology and are not as susceptible to definite planning as may be the case in other sciences, such as chemistry. You may recall that at the meeting held on May 17th at the New York Athletic Club I stated that since the January membership meeting every member of the scientific staff and every member of the Scientific Advisory Board had been requested to submit a statement of research projects that he thought advisable to accomplishithe purposes of The Council. I informed the meeting that these had been received and were being collated, hopefully for discussion and consideration by the Scientific Advisory Board when it meets next week. With this behind us, I am hopeful that Dr. Gardner soon after July 1st will be in position to begin making an intensive study and, with the aid of other members of the staff and Advisory Board, produce a rational and meaningfuliplan. Sincerely, H. H'. Ramm President HHR:ek