196 



Mr. Frelinghuysen. Yes. 



Mr. Gross. Mr. Secretary, in referring to a specialized group you 

 are not referring to this First Committee of the United Nations as 

 being specialized in knowledge on this subject ? 



Mr. Frosch. No. That is precisely the point. I think they could 

 agree that there was a problem and that the problem was important. 

 They could agree to set up on or several specialized bodies that would 

 have detailed knowledge and they could establish guidance for what 

 it was that they wanted those specialized bodies to do. 



Mr. Gross. Are you through ? 



Mr. Frelinghuysen. The Secretary was just going to cover the 

 point how a decision is made within this particular Commission as to 

 whether or not to respond favorably to a suggestion from the Soviets. 



Mr. Frosch. The Bureau and Consultative Council of the Commis- 

 sion, the bureau consisting of the President and Vice Presidents of the 

 Commission who are elected by the Commission, the Consultative 

 Council consisting of a group of countries, including the United 

 States, who act as a kind of steering committee for the Bureau, es- 

 tablish an agenda or a provisional agenda for the Commission. 



The Commission, itself, adopts its own final agenda. We have the 

 provisional agenda quite a long time in advance of the actual meet- 

 ing and there is a committee which was originally set up by the old 

 Interagency Committee on Oceanography but wdiich still exists as a 

 committee reporting to the State Department and representing the 

 governmental agencies and some private scientific groups concerned 

 with oceanographic problems. This committee studies the agenda and 

 makes recommendations to the Department of State with regard to 

 the U.S. responses to the various items on the agenda. These pro- 

 posed 



Mr. Frelinghuysen. I don't means to interrupt again. I don't un- 

 derstand what we are saying. This is an interagency committee com- 

 posed of U.S. individuals from a variety of Federal agencies inter- 

 ested in marine matters ? 



Mr. Frosch. That is correct, sir. 



Mr. Frelinghuysen. They don't have any formal representation 

 on this Commission at all? They are an outside group which makes 

 the decision 



Mr. Frosch. I am describing the way in which we, internally for 

 the executive department of the U.S. Government, decide upon the 

 policy guidance to be given to the U.S. delegation to this intergovern- 

 mental commission. 



Mr. Frelinghuysen. It sounds like chaos to me. You as a represen- 

 tative to the Commission do not have the power to decide for your- 

 self what the U.S. position is going to be. That is for the interagency 

 committee. 



Mr. Frosch. Let me complete the cycle. 



Mr. Frelinghuysen. I am afraid I will lose track of what we have 

 said thus far. 



Mr. Frosch. The interagency committee makes a recommendation 

 as to U.S. policy response to the State Department. The State Depart- 

 ment circulates this formally to the agencies that have U.S. national 

 interests in marine sciences and asks for their views. There is a se- 



