66 



Mr. Fascell. One could go by history though, could one not? 

 The convention of the coastal states is certainly no part of the United 

 Nations family. 



Mr. Popper. It stands independently. 



Mr. Fascell. If it weren't for that fact, you may not even have a 

 Maltese proposal. 



Mr. Gross. It seems to me. Air. Chairman, that we can just as 

 logically assume that this agency or this organization, whatever it 

 is — reading paragraph 4, "proposed treaty should envisage the 

 creation of an international agency * * * " we can just as logically 

 assume here today that this will be a United Nations organization. 

 We can just as logically assume it will be that as any other organi- 

 zation. 



Mr. Fascell. Of course. There is no argument there at all. 



The request has now been presented by the Government of Malta to 

 the Secretary General wdth the explanatory note. What happens next? 



Mr. Popper. Yesterday afternoon the General Committee, or 

 Steering Committee of the Assembly decided to admit this item to the 

 agenda, the item being the title which you see at the top of the piece 

 of paper. They did not reach the stage of allocating it to a specific 

 committee of the General Assembly. They should reach that stage 

 today. It is theoretically possible to argue that this could be assigned 

 to the Legal Committee of the General Assembly or the Economic Com- 

 mittee of the General Assembly or the Political Committee of the 

 General Assembly. 



Mr. Fascell. Or all of them. 



Mr. Popper. Or all of them, and I am not sure what the decision 

 would be. 



It will be a matter of great importance in political circles, whatever 

 we do. 



Mr. Fascell. The item is now on the agenda and the next thing 

 is reference to a committee; then what? 



Mr. Popper. The committee sets up the order of items on its o^^^l 

 agenda. When it reaches this subject, we should then have some 

 specific proposal by the representative of Malta and by others who 

 may have proposals to make on this subject. 



It is not necessarily the case that the memorandum we see here 

 would be precisely what the representative of Malta would put into 

 the committee as the draft resolution he wanted the Assembly to 

 consider. 



Mr. Fascell. Nor can we expect that would be the precise pro- 

 posal that would come out of the committee. 



Mr. Popper. Indeed not. As Ambassador Goldberg said yesterday, 

 we shall have specific proposals to make; others will no doubt have 

 proposals to make; and it will only be after a discussion of aU those 

 proposals that the committee finally comes around to a text which 

 I hope it will adopt and report out to the plenary session of the 

 Assembly. 



Mr. Fascell. It might be that Malta would have to vote against 

 its original proposal since it couldn't recognize it in its final form? 



Mr. Popper. It is theoretically possible. 



Mr. Fascell. What is the time schedule on this thing? Do you 

 have any idea as far as committee action is concerned? What has your 

 experience been? 



