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Mr, Frelinghuysen. Do you think it is of any great concern — I am 

 granting that exploration is important — but is it of any great con- 

 cern whether or not there is national sovereignty over these depths? 

 Does it need to be decided as to just who has jurisdiction or sov- 

 ereignty ? I don't even know the word to use. 



Dr. James. I think I better perhaps pass on that question, Mr. Chair- 

 man, if you don't mind. There are policy questions here. I may have 

 personal opinions, but I woukl rather not express them. 



Mr. Frelinghuysen. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. 



Mr. Fascell. Mr. Fraser? 



Mr. Fraser. I am having a little difficulty getting fixed in my mind, 

 Mr. Bascom, where you are currently exploring. Are you exploring on 

 the continental shelf? 



Mr. Bascom. For our own account. We are doing contract work for 

 other people in deep water. 



Mr. Fraser. That exceeds the continental shelf. 



Mr. Bascom. We are mainly Pacific people. The average depth is 

 15,000. If you go to sea out there you have to go to 20,000 feet 



Mr. Fraser. You are participating in the process of ascertaining the 

 kinds of things to be found in the deep areas. 



Mr. Bascom. Yes, sir. One thing I did not say so far, which I should 

 perhaps add, we are also, to some extent, in the oil exploration busi- 

 ness. The subject hasn't exactly come up. I don't think of that as 

 minerals. At least it is not the same kind of minerals. 



There is, in my judgment, fairly good evidence that there are oil de- 

 posits in quite deep water. 



As you will recall, in the organizing for the Mohole project, some 

 years ago, our group did drill five holes in water 12,00 feet deep. 

 These are not oil production holes but it shows it is feasible to do it. 

 It is far from a production well for recovering oil. It is possible to re- 

 trieve oil at great depths. 



I think it is quite a long ways off in the future, but it ought to 

 be kept in mind by your group. 



Mr. Fraser. I am not asking you to answer as a lawyer but more 

 from your general experience in this field, when you get out to these 

 depths your impression is that there is no nation, at the moment, 

 who has the right to deny you 



Mr. Bascom. I think that is true. 



Mr. Fraser. You are operating on the principle of the freedom of 

 the high seas. 



Mr. Bascom. I like that principle. It frightens me to think we would 

 have to steam a ship around South America to England and cross over 

 40 different ownerships on the way. 



Mr. Fraser. That is to say, you would regard as a difficult propo- 

 sition the extension of national jurisdiction into the high seas? 



Mr. Bascom. As I understand the present ground rules, I think un- 

 der the Geneva Convention, a country, or a representative of any 

 country may follow deposits out as far as their technology will let 

 them go. You can work off the continental shelf and go as far as you 

 can go. We haven't come up against that problem yet, so I am not sure 

 about that. 



You will find places in the world where the continental shelf is not 

 well defined, where it slopes off gradually into deep water. It is a 

 more complicated problem than what it seems at first. 



