OCEANOGRAPHY IN THE UNITED STATES H 



Sir, you said there is a free interchange of ideas and data between 

 the scientists of the various nations. Does that inchide the Russian 

 scientists ? 



Mr. Vetter. Yes, sir. 



Mr. CuRTiN. There is no reluctance there to exchange information 

 from them to us or vice versa ? 



Mr. Vetter. No, sir ; not that I know of. To the best of my knowl- 

 edge the Russians are very proud of their recent accomplishments in 

 marine sciences and very anxious to show off this accomplishment to 

 the Western World. 



Their research ship, the Vityaz, recently stopped oif both at Van- 

 couver and at San Francisco and later at Hawaii and the Canadian 

 scientists who went aboard the Vityaz and talked to the Russians in 

 their laboratories at Vancouver and our own scientists who went 

 aboard at San Francisco were very much impressed with the eager- 

 ness that the Russians seemed to have to show what they had done 

 recently. They have just in the past few years achieved enough 

 stature in their field so that they are proud of it and want to show 

 what they have done in as great detail as possible. 



There may be aspects of the program that they are not talking 

 about but I think that the best estimate is that they are being open 

 and above board as far as the IGY part of their activities is concerned. 



Mr. CuRTix. That is all, Mr. Chairman. 



Mr. Miller. Do you know whether all of their activities are con- 

 fined to that? There has been speculation in other places that this 

 ship has gotten oil course and disappeared in the ocean for a while 

 and we did not know just what she was doing. 



Mr. Vetter. I cannot comment on that authoritatively. 



Mr. Miller. I know that you cannot do it authoritatively. 



Mr. Vetter. To the best of my knowledge, they have done what 

 they said they were going to do and have made all this information 

 available. 



Mr. Miller. Mr. Oliver. 



Mr. Oliver. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. 



Mr. Vetter, I, of course, along with the other members of the com- 

 mittee, have read this report which your group recently published. 

 I have been tremendously impressed by what I have thought was a 

 sense of urgency expressed therein by your group. Is that correct? 

 Do you feel that this is a matter of urgency so far as our Nation is 

 concerned ? 



Mr. Vetter. Yes, I do. 



Mr. Oliver. Would you care to compare it, for example, with what 

 we may be doing with regard to the exploration of space as to its 

 degree of urgency ? 



Mr. Vetter. First of all, space is a very exciting, stimulating, 

 scientific, and I think we ought to go ahead vigorously in this field. 



It is a characteristic of science that rapid progress in any part of 

 scientific capabilities and technology is reflected in increased capa- 

 bilities throughout the rest of science. 



I think that we cannot help but benefit directly and indirectly from 

 the vigorous program for exploring outer space and developing 

 these devices. 



38170—59 2 



