The Dent Law gave all such claims a legal footing, but that act was not in force until March 2, 1919. Meanwhile, however, the War Department’s liquidation machinery had taken up the settlement of the informal contracts along with the others. The district boards had determined for many of them what part of the work had been completed, what amounts the Government should pay for materials delivered, what reimbursements the producers should receive for expenditures made in preparation for production, and in many instances had reached complete agreements as to final lump-sum settlements. When the Dent Law went on the statute books, these agreements needed only final approval to become operative; and therefore the settlement of the informal claims proceeded with great rapidity after the passage of the enabling act. The Dent Law conferred upon the Secretary of War power to adjust the informal contracts on equitable terms, with the proviso (already adopted as policy in the settlement of the valid contracts) that no prospective profits should be paid. This power the Secretary delegated to the War Department Claims Board, with two exceptions. Invalid contracts made with Canadian producers were to be adjusted by the Imperial Munitions Board, a branch of the British Ministry of Munitions, which had acted as the agent of the War Department in procuring army supplies in Canada. All contracts with other foreign producers--they were principally French and British producers--were to be settled by various foreign agencies and representatives of the War Department. The informal contracts with American producers were of two sorts--those of which there was written evidence and those of which there was no written evidence. The former were known as Class A contracts and the latter as Class B. The Class A contracts were contracts apparently formal but improperly executed, or procurement orders, or correspondence setting forth the contract terms. The Class B contracts were agreements wholly or in part oral. The Class A contracts presented no difficulty to the War Department Claims Board, and they were put through to settlement by the regular procedure. It required the taking of testimony to establish the terms of Class B contracts, and the War Department Claims Board, with its subsidiary boards, had its hands too full with the regular routine of liquidation to add to its business this new, voluminous work; and therefore it in turn delegated the duty of establishing the terms of the Class B contracts to the Board of Contract Adjustment, the creation of which was noted above.