Moreover, United Nations' title to operations in the sea could forestall a pos- 

 sible new military race. Without an international agreement, the militarj' of 

 each country may feel compelled on the basis of self-interest to carry defense to 

 any new frontier opened to man. As Navy Commander M. Scott Carpenter 

 said at a recent meeting of aerospace engineers and scientists at Cape Kennedy, 

 "one of the greatest hostile threats to this country might come from beneath 

 the surface of the sea." The Soviet Union, and possibly other countries, may 

 entertain the same fear. 



Under the Antarctic Treaty of December 1, 1959, twelve governments, in- 

 cluding the United States and the Soviet Union, agreed that Antarctica shall be 

 used for peacefiil purposes only. Military personnel or equipment may be used 

 only for scientific research or other peaceful purposes. Thus there is precedent 

 for an agreement, both in this and the U.N. General Assembly action in 1963 

 calling upon nations to refrain from placing in orbit nuclear weapons or other 

 weapons of mass destruction. (Obviously, this recommendation would not affect 

 the Polaris submarine or present conventional surface military vessels.) Some 

 have suggested, too, that perhaps the U.N. should go a step further and institute 

 a monitoring system to detect and report to the world underseas military activity. 



But one of the most challenging reasons for United Nations control and ad- 

 ministration of the sea is to provide the U.N. with an independent income. Some 

 member nations now are reluctant to give the U.N. resources adequate even for 

 its immediate, modest program. Despite the authorization of the Security Council 

 for the peacekeeping force in Cyprus, for instance, it is only with the greatest 

 difficulty that, at the end of each three-month period, the Secretary General 

 obtains enough in contributions from individual states to maintain this force. 

 Yet the work of the United Nations must be expanded many-fold if it is to meet 

 the responsibilities than an ever more complex world has thrust upon it, including 

 the great question of disarmament. Nations should not be excused from paying 

 much larger assessments needed to maintain the organization — which to many 

 powers means but a small fraction of their military budgets. However, assessments 

 of the individual members should be greatly augmented by an independent source 

 of income. 



For the United Nations to have its own source of income and a vast area to 

 administer would give it the kind of strength and maturity it needs to meet the 

 tremendous problems of the future. Obviously, estimates differ widely as to the 

 income that could be realized from U.N. licensing of resources in the sea and 

 outer space, but the United Nations would gain enormously. 



At the same time there would be provided a long-needed source of funds to help 

 imderdeveloped arejis. Few nations today are in a position individually to exploit 

 resources of the sea, even were there U.N. licensing and control. But if the sea 

 were administered as the common property of mankind, all peoples could share 

 it — for part of the licensing fees charged by the U.N. could be used to assist the 

 nations now luost in need of help. 



How could a'l this be accomplished? 



The Commission recommends that a specialized agency be created, the United 

 Nations Marine Resources Agency: "This agency should control and administer 

 international marine resources. It shovild hold ownersliip rights and grant, lease, 

 or use these rights in accordance with the principles of economic efficiency and the 

 w^ell-being of mankind. It should distribute the returns fi'om such exploitation in 

 accordance with the directives issued by the U.N. General Assembly." 



The agency should operate with the efficiency of the International Bank. It 

 must inspire the confidence of those economic interests that would be dependent 

 upon it. 



As long ago as 1953, it is interesting to note, in an International Law Commission 

 report to the General Assembly, the possibility of a specialized agency was con- 

 templated, although with a much more limited purpose. Envisaged then was the 

 establishment of an international authority within the framework of the U.N. 

 with the power of adopting binding regulations for protecting the fishing resources 

 of the sea against waste or extermination. 



The broadcast of the Internationale from Luna 10 in early April indicates 

 how brief the time may be before Soviet and American nationals make a landing 

 on the moon. It points up the urgent need of implementing the 1961 resolution 

 of the General Assembly that the celestial bodies are not subject to national 

 appropriation. 



The New York Times, in an editorial last April 5, suggested that there should 

 be agreement that the moon is the property of all mankind and open for research 



