507 



of the sea" — have the effect of eroding the freedom of the seas and 

 prove a practical detriment to the world community at large. Presi- 

 dent Johnson, in his "Washington Navy Yard speech had warned of 

 precisely this consequence of the "race to grab and to hold" and had 

 called instead for their preservation as a "legacy of all human 

 beings." 106 



This statement set the course for the position taken by the United 

 States during deliberations following the Malta proposal. Testifying 

 before the 90th Congress, spokesmen of the Departments of Interior 

 and State had generally affirmed that in dealing with areas beyond 

 the jurisdiction of national states, i.e., beyond the continental shelf, 

 regardless of its definition, the United Nations should, logically, be 

 concerned with the subject. The United States was in the process of 

 developing its own policy objectives through the Marine Resources 

 Act of 1966 ; consequently, no support was contemplated for tlie treaty 

 envisaged by Malta. 



Fears of hasty action were allayed by the State Department's 

 expression of doubt that the General Assembly could get very far 

 with a proposal of this specificity on such short notice. It was pointed 

 out that there would have to be a process of study through commit- 

 tees and specialists, and the deliberative process in the United Nations 

 tends to be lengthy. 



On September 21, 1967, the U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations 

 supported the inscription of the Malta proposal on the agenda of the 

 U.N. General Assembly and asserted that the United Nations was in 

 a position to assume leadership in enlisting the peaceful cooperation 

 of all nations in developing the world's oceans and their resources. 



Following establishment of the Ad Hoc Committee in December 

 1967, the United States participated in its deliberations and on June 

 28, 1968. submitted a number of proposals including a draft resolution 

 containing («.) a declaration of principles on the use of the deep ocean 

 floor; (b) a draft resolution referring to the Eighteen-Nation Dis- 

 armament Committee (ENDC) the question of arms limitations on 

 the seabed and ocean floor with a view to defining these factors vital 

 to a workable, verifiable, and effective international agreement which 

 would prevent the use of this new environment for the emplacement 

 of weapons of mass destruction; and (c) a suggestion to establish in- 

 ternational marine preserves. 



The United States also supported a less extensive declaration of 

 principles submitted by a number of delegations. These principles 

 differed from previous U.S. positions in that the United States came 

 to recognize the "interest of the international community in the devel- 

 opment of deep ocean resources," and the "dedication as feasible and 

 practicable of a portion of the value of the resources recovered from 

 the deep ocean floor to international community purposes." Draft res- 

 olution C proposed the International Decade of Ocean Exploration 

 (IDOE) for broadening and accelerating investigations of the oceans, 

 and for strengthening international cooperation. IDOE was adopted 

 by the General Assembly as part of the long-term and expanded pro- 

 gram of world-wide exploration of the oceans and their resources 

 under the direction of UNESCO's Intergovernmental Oceanographic 

 Commission. 



106 Op. cit. 



