y, always assuming
that the quota limiting the total number of black soldiers would be
preserved.[17-1]

[Footnote 17-1: Interv, author with Collins.]

But the Army had promised the Fahy Committee in April 1950 it (p. 429)
would abolish the quota. If carried out, such an agreement would
complicate an orderly and controlled integration, and Collins's desire
for change was clearly tempered by his concern for order and control.
So long as peacetime manpower levels remained low and inductions
through the draft limited, a program such as the one contemplated by
the Chief of Staff was feasible, but any sudden wartime expansion
would change all that. Fear of such a sudden change combined with the
strong opposition to integration still shared by most Army officials
to keep the staff from any initiative toward integration in the period
immediately after the Fahy Committee adjourned.

Even before Gray and Collins completed their negotiations with the
Fahy Committee, they were treated by the Chamberlin Board to yet
another indication of the scope of Army staff opposition to
integration. Gray had appointed a panel of senior officers under Lt.
Gen. Stephen J. Chamberlin on 18 September 1949 in fulfillment of his
promise to review the Army's racial policy periodically "in the light
of changing conditions and experiences of this day and time."[17-2]
After sitting four months and consulting more than sixty major Army
officials and some 280 officers and men, the board produced a
comprehensive summary of the Army's racial status based on test
scores, enlistment rates, school figures, venereal disease rates,
opinion surveys, and the like.

[Footnote 17-2: Memo, SA for Lt Gen Stephen J.
Chamberlin, 30 Nov 49, sub: Utilization of Negro
Manpower in the Army, CSGPA 291.2. See also Dir,
P&A, Summary Sheet to CofS, 2 Nov 49, sub: Board to
Study the Utilization of Negro Manpower in
Peacetime Army, CSGPA 291.2, and TAG to Chamberlin,
18 Nov 49, same sub, AG 334 (17 Nov 49). In
addition to Chamberlin, the board included Maj.
Gen. Withers A. Buress, commanding general of the
Infantry Center; Maj. Gen. John M. Divine,
commanding general of 9th Infantry Division, Fort
Dix; and Col. M. VanVoorst, Pe