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the development of legal conventions with respect to exploitation of 

 the deep seabed, and which would have dealt with questions with 

 respect to scientific research. 



Why did we drag our feet on that proposal ? How do we arrive at 

 that position? 



Mr. Frosch. Let me answer the two questions in order. We simply 

 felt this particular commission was the wrong forum to develop some- 

 thing as sw^eeping as generalized legal conventions. The Commission 

 has a charter which is too narrow because it deals only with scien- 

 tific research. Our agreed upon view, and I will come to the mecha- 

 nism for that in a moment, has been that something as sweeping as 

 these conventions would have to be undertaken in an international 

 forum which was competent in much broader areas than just scientific 

 research but that it was entirely reasonable for this Commission to 

 offer its services as an intergovernmental body to the wider arena of 

 the United Nations or whatever international organizational part of 

 the United Nations system was proper to undertake that work. 



Mr, Fascell. Will the gentleman yield at that point ? 



Mr. Secretary, do you mean, for example, the First Committee ? 



Mr. Frosch. It could conceivably be the First Committee. 



Mr. Fascell. That is where the issue is right now. 



Mr. Frosch. Yes, sir. 



Mr. Fascell. In your view, is that the right formn or the wrong 

 forum ? I think that is an important point. 



Mr. Frosch. I think the First Committee or the U.N. as a whole — 

 whether it is the First Committee or another committee I am not 

 sure — would be the right forum to start the problem out. There is no 

 question that a forum as large as that would discover it would have 

 to refer many questions to a more specialized body. 



For example, it is quite clear that the First Committee of the U.N. 

 is not made up in such a way that it is technically competent to deal 

 with scientific matters and perhaps not with agricultural matters or 

 economic matters. So when these areas come up as a part of the 

 decision I think they would have to ask questions of specialized liodies 

 in order to be sure that their basis of fact upon which they were operat- 

 ing was correct. 



Mr, Frelinghuysen. I would assume the First Committee would be 

 an inappropriate group inasmuch as it is composed of every member 

 of the U.N, regardless of the country's interest or capacity in this kind 

 of exploration and research. They would be the authorizing group to 

 establish a broader based commission than the one that we have been 

 referring to. 



Mr. Frosch, This seems like a reasonable thing to do. 



They might authorize such a commission and they might write some 

 general guidelines as to what this working committee might consider. 



Mr. Frelinghuysen. Your objection was not to the fact that there 

 should be some international interest in common approaches to these 

 problems, and a sharing of knowledge and a division of responsibility ? 



Mr. Frosch. Not at all but merely a feeling that one had to be quite 

 careful in picking the right international arena so that all aspects of 

 the problem would be suitably considered and represented, 



Mr. Gross. Will the gentleman yield ? 



