2144 VETOES

subsequently its corporate existence has not been derived from
Legislative Acts.

Since 1904 the Trustees have received in trust by will or
declaration of trust funds aggregating approximately $1, 800, -
000. for certain objectives with respect to the Baltimore
Schools of the University of Maryland specifically set forth in
the instruments creating the trusts and for no other purposes.
There are twenty-six such funds received in trust and the in-
come therefrom has been devoted to the objectives defined in
the trust instruments, i. e. scholarships, research in medicine,
purchase of equipment, etc.

The Trustees include Albert Burns, Judge William P. Cole,
Dr. Charles Reed Edwards, Horace E. Flack, Robertson Gris-
wold, Dr. Arthur M. Shipley and Judge W. Conwell Smith.
These independent trustees, who are unpaid, have been hand-
ling these funds for nearly half a century in a fiduciary
capacity.

The provisions of House Bill No. 701 are designed to replace
this independent Board of Trustees by the Regents of the Uni-
versity of Maryland. Such a transfer to the Regents of the
University of Maryland would defeat the purposes for which
these trusts were explicitly created and frustrate the purpose
of the donors in making the bequests and gifts to the Trustees
of the Endowment Fund to be held in trust for specific pur-
poses. In addition, I believe that under the circumstances the
constitutionality of the Bill is extremely questionable. Ac-
cordingly, I am returning this Bill without my approval.

Respectfully,

THEODORE R. MCKELDIN,

Governor

VETERANS

May 7, 1951

Hon. John C. Luber
Speaker of the House of Delegates
State House
Annapolis, Maryland

Dear Mr. Speaker:

I requested the Hon. Hall Hammond, the Attorney General
to advise me as to the legal form and sufficiency of House Bill
545, and he commented as follows:

"It is my opinion that House Bill 545, which provides that
the State shall guarantee certain loans made to paraplegic
veterans, is invalid under Section 34 of Article 3 of the Mary-
land Constitution. You will recall that Section 34 provides