194 



legal problems related to scientific research particularly on the high 

 seas and on the sea bottom. As you may know, the Soviets proposed 

 that this intergovernmental commission undertake the writing of legal 

 conventions to cover the question of scientific work and of resources 

 work on the sea bottom. 



Mr. Frelinghuysen. I don't mean to interrupt, Mr. Secretary. You 

 are assuming too much if you think I know that. I don't know what 

 the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission is. 



Mr. Frosch. The Commission is a specialized agency under UNESCO 

 which was set up in 1960 in order to provide an international forum in 

 which governments interested in scientific research at sea could discuss 

 with each other problems of scientific research and make arrangements 

 for cooperative research and studies of oceanographic and sea bottom 

 matters. It has met every 2 years since then, and has started and ar- 

 ranged for a number of cooperative studies of oceanographic matters 

 including the International Indian Ocean Expedition and the Inter- 

 national Cooperative Investigations of the Tropical Atlantic. 



These have been useful scientific expeditions and a good deal of 

 knowledge has been gained through them. This has been a purely 

 scientific intergovernmental group in that it has dealt only with prob- 

 lems of scientific research. The proposal made by the Soviets was that 

 it would be useful for this Commission to undertake the writing of 

 legal conventions for scientific research and for resource exploitation. 

 It was the U.S. view that the charter and the nature of this 

 Commission was quite restricted to scientific research and that the 

 makeup of the Commission was such that it could not undertake some- 

 thing as broad as the writing of legal conventions involving scientific 

 research and the ways in which scientific research impinges upon fish- 

 eries problem, upon resources problems, upon economic problems and 

 so on. We finally did, however, agree that it would be useful for this 

 Commission to establish a working group that would try to develop 

 the present status of knowledge with regard to the way in which sci- 

 entific research is affected by legal possibilities and the way in which 

 scientific research can make a contribution to understanding what the 

 law of the sea might rationally be. 



This working group will be appointed by the Bureau of the Com- 

 mission and will begin to develop this information. One of the pre- 

 vious actions that the Commission took was a request for all States 

 that were involved to submit to the Secretary of the Commission 

 instances in which they had knowledge of legal difficulties which led 

 to problems in scientific research. As far as I know, over the 2-year 

 period since the previous meeting only two such instances were sub- 

 mitted to the Secretary of the Commission, although we are aware 

 of several other instances that might have been submitted. None of 

 them were serious. 



Mr. Frelinghuysen. I will iiave to reread your testimony to un- 

 derstand it. This is no reflection on you, Mr. Secretar3^ I am not sure 

 yet how a commission such as this operates. 



How is the United States represented and how is a U.S. position 

 developed ? As I understand you, the Soviets made a suggestion which 

 would have resulted, if it had been accepted by the United States — 

 I gather the United States vetoed it — which would have resulted in 



