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working group set up to draft a convention on "The International 

 Norms of Exploration and Exploitation of the Mineral Resources 

 of the High Seas." 



Our own feeling is that a body which has been ajid really is scientific 

 in nature is not the body to draft such a convention if, indeed, we 

 wished to proceed in this du-ection at this time. We feel that discussion 

 in the broader forum of the General Assembly, where poHtical, legal, 

 and economic aspects can be taken into account, is much more desir- 

 able, and we are not in favor of pushing forward in the IOC on this 

 subject. 



Mr. Frelinghuysen. Is there any way of blunting the Soviet 

 initiative singlehandedly, if the other members of this Intergovern- 

 mental Oceanographic Commission should feel it was a good idea? 



Mr. Popper. The Commission is about to meet. It meets next 

 month. 



What I have been referring to are our plans for that meeting. We 

 will make our views known. 



I have no knowledge of how the other members will feel but I 

 should have thought they would be rather impressed by the broader 

 responsibiUty of the General Assembly if it should be getting into 

 that field. 



I might add one word about the proposal of Malta. I doubt seriously 

 that the General Assembly could get very far with a proposal of this 

 order of specificity on such short notice. What I am saying is that I 

 think there would have to be the beginning of a process of study 

 through committees, through specialists, and that sort of thing, and 

 I think it would be reasonable to expect that it would be a long time 

 before any specific operational types of activity would come out of 

 this process. The deliberative process in the United Nations tends to 

 be lengthy in any event. 



Mr. Frelinghuysen. However, if there were sufficient appeal to 

 the developing nations, which Malta's resolution seems to have, I 

 would think you could have a setting aside of the normal course of 

 deliberation and a quick adoption of something which we might feel 

 was very premature, as you indicated today. 



Is there any way in wliich action can be blocked if there is no 

 accepted method by which action does come ? 



Mr, Popper. Let me make a few points on that score. First of all, 

 as you know so well. Assembly resolutions are recommendations and 

 not definitive. In order for this counti-y to be bound by any new legal 

 arrangements with respect to the deep seas or anything else we would 

 have to get the approval of the U.S. Government through treaty or 

 through other appropriate action involving the Congress. 



As to the possibility of a hasty action by the big majority of under- 

 developed countries in the General Assembly, it is interesting to note 

 that in the very short discussion which took place in the General 

 Committee of the Assembly yesterday some countries expressed some 

 slight reservations. Some countries are quite jealous of their sovereignty 

 extending quite far into the ocean. I call to your mind the South 

 American Pacific States, for example. 



I suggest therefore that any country which has a seacoast, developed 

 or underdeveloped, will want to think very carefully about what 

 happens as you move into this new and largely unexplored area, so I 



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