(a) Valid applications, claims, or rights protected by the provisions of subsection (c) of section 1 of the Act of January 25, 1927, include applications, entries, selections, locations, permits, leases, and other forms of filing, initiated or held pursuant to existing laws of the United States prior to January 25, 1927, embracing known mineral school-section lands then surveyed and otherwise within the terms of the additional grant, and as to lands thereafter surveyed, valid applications, claims, or rights so initiated or held prior to the date of the acceptance of the survey. The additional grant to the State will attach upon the effective date of the relinquishment or cancellation of any claim, so asserted, in the absence of any other valid existing claim for the land and if same be then surveyed. Should the validity of any such claim be questioned by the State, proceedings with respect thereto by protest, contest, hearing, etc., will be had in the form and manner prescribed by existing rules governing such cases. This procedure will be followed in the matter of all protests, contests, or claims filed by individuals, associations, or corporations against the States affecting school-section lands.