180 



recommendation to two places — to the President and the Stat© 

 Department ? 



Dr. Cain. The Council would report to the President and Congress 

 according to the act establishing the Council. 



Mr. Fascell. Was that done in this particular case? 



Dr. Cain. No, sir. 



Mr. Fascell. With respect to this present policy position?' 



Dr. Cain. No, sir. 



Mr. Fascell. It was not done ? 



Dr. Cain. No, sir. 



Mr. Fascell. The agency that Congress created has not participated 

 formally in making this policy decision ? 



Dr. Cain. I don't believe the State Department has referred this 

 position to the National Marine Council. 



Mr. Fascell, They didn't on their own initiate any position? 



Dr. Cain. The question hasn't come before the Council. 



Mr. Fascell. I am not being argmnentative, but it seems to me the 

 question before the Council is just like a question before the Congress. 

 I don't think they need an initiating document or the introduction of 

 an agenda item or a resolution in order for them to take action. It 

 seems peculiar to me that the very organization that Congress has tried 

 to form to coordinate and formulate fundamental policy decisions 

 hasn't acted on one in which the United States is about to take an 

 international policy decision. 



Mr. Frelinghuysen. Could I get back to your description in this 

 policy statement, the "application of knowledge that is gained?" The 

 word "application." 



I am interested in this possibility. Let us suppose such a research 

 program is established and one of the functions of this international 

 organization is to explore for oil. Suppose they discover oil, then the 

 application of the knowledge that oil is there leads to the question, how 

 do you dispose of it and who gets it ? 



Does this mean, in other words, that we are advocating transferring 

 responsibility for what is done with the end product of that knowledge, 

 in this case the oil ? 



Dr. Cain. You are quite right about the word "acquisition." It would 

 mean that all states in a position to do so would emphasize the acquisi- 

 tion and application of knowledge. 



Mr. Frelinghitysen. That is what I m-ean. Acquisition is one thing 

 but the application of knowledge 



Dr. Cain. Of the seabed and subsoil by doing this, that and the 

 other. Knowledge can be applied in many ways. 



So the application, for example, if it is knowledge of the seabed 

 with respect to a living resource like king crab which is caught on the 

 seabed and can be caught at depths greater than that defined for the 

 continental shelf, 200 meters and so on, this application goes back 

 to the individual nation. 



It may be on a basis of unilateral action or it may be on the basis of 

 some kind of international agreement between two or more nations. 



You would have, I think, the same problem with respect to the ap- 

 plication of any geological knowledge or any knowledge about 

 minerals. Application here doesn't in any sense determine the political 

 question or the jurisdictional question. 



