42 



Mr. Fraser. You talk first about exploitation. 



Mr. Rogers. Yes, to be able to occupy and defend it. 



Mr. Fraser. What you mean to say is that we would assert sov- 

 ereignty over it for all purposes incident to exploitation and be pre- 

 pared to defend it? 



Mr. Rogers. That is correct. 



Mr. Fraser. Therefore, there is no role for any international 

 body to play in the situation? 



Mr. Rogers. I don't say there is no role for the international body, 

 but not as to the sovereignty of the sea bottoms. I do not want an 

 international body to come in when present law allows us to extend 

 tlie borders of this Nation just as we did when we went west. 



We did not have any international body to tell us whether we 

 could go there or not. It was land that had not been developed. 



Mr. Fraser. So that I may get clear in my mind this situation, 

 as between the United States and Cuba, how far would you say that 

 our sovereignty would go? 



Mr. Rogers. Well, as I understand it, under the Geneva Convention 

 you go out to a midpoint. You could go out to a midpoint between 

 nations just like, I ])resume, they are trying to do in the North Sea. 

 Tiiey are trying to work this out bilaterally. 



Mr. Fraser. The i)roblein I find with this convention is that it 

 extends the continental shelf beyond the 200-meter dej^th to those 

 depths wliich admit of exploitation of the natural resources of said 

 area. 



Mr. Rogers. That is right. 



Mr. Fraser. What that suggests is that there is a changing limit 

 because the technology changes. 



Mr. Rogers. Yes. 



Mr. Fraser. However, the same convention goes on to say that 

 these rights are exclusive and even if you have not exploited them 

 they are still yours. 



Now, do I understand your position is that there is now a sufficient 

 technology so that the United States is in a ]30sition to flatly declare 

 that it can go to the mid-Atlantic ])oint and assert its rights to the 

 exclusion of all others? 



Mr. Rogers. 1 don't think any nation is yet in that position. 

 I don't think we will be probably until 1980. I have suggested that 

 we set this as a national goal for oceanography — occupation of the 

 mid-Atlantic range by 1980. 



Mr. Fraser. In any event — — 



Mr. Rogers. Here is what I am saying: The Geneva Convention 

 says you can go out as far as you can exploit, out to the midrange, 

 say, off of the shelf beyond the 200-meter limit depth. Now, as we 

 develop the technology to occupy and to be able to defend that, I 

 think we ought to have that right and not be blocked by the United 

 Nations coming in and saying "Oh, no, you cannot do that. W^e own 

 all the sea bottoms." They will not have the technology to do it. 

 That agency has no capability. It is not an exploiting agency. So it 

 ought to be left to the individual nations, off their own coasts, to do 

 this. 



Mr. Fraser. In any event, your ultinuite view of the resources of 

 the sea is that they are divided up among nations? 



