Appendix 10 



Statement by Ambassador Arthur J. Goldberg, United States 

 Representative to the United Nations, in Committee I, on the 

 Question of the Reservation Exclusively for Peaceful Purposes 

 OF the Sea-bed and the Ocean Floor, November 8, 1967.^ 



Mr. Chairman, this is my first opportunity to speak before the First Commit- 

 tee at this Session. And I wish to use it to express the pleasure and satisfaction 

 of the United States Delegation at your unanimous election as our presiding 

 officer. 



From time to time in the past, you served as Chairman in an acting capacity. 

 On those occasions, the entire Committee was impressed by the objectivity, 

 decisiveness and integrity you brought to your work. We are grateful, but hardly 

 surprised, that you have continued to display these same characteristics since 

 your election this year— and confident you will continue to guide the Committee's 

 work in the same spirit throughout this Session. 



With its consideration of the Maltese Item concerning the Seabeds and Ocean 

 Floor, the General Assembly has responded to the increasing awareness that 

 one of man's oldest environments, the ocean, is also his newest and perhaps most 

 valuable frontier. I would like to express my Delegation's gratitude to Ambassa- 

 dor Pardo for bringing this important question to the attention of the General 

 Assembly. 



My Delegation believes that mankind's expanding activities in the ocean depths 

 call for new efforts for international cooperation, both in promoting the ex- 

 ploration and use of the deep ocean and its floor, and in the development of the 

 general principles which might usefully guide man's activities in this new realm. 



The premise on which the United States bases its position concerning a future 

 legal regime for the deep ocean floor is straightforward. It was stated by Presi- 

 dent Johnson on July 13, 1966 : "Under no circumstances, we believe, must we 

 ever allow the prospects of rich harvest and mineral wealth to create a new 

 form of colonial competition among the maritime nations. We must be careful 

 to avoid a race to grab and to hold the lands under the high seas. We must 

 ensure that the deep seas and and the ocean bottoms are, and remain, the legacy 

 of all human beings." 



This means, in our view, that the deep ocean floor should not be the stage 

 for competing claims of national sovereignty. Whatever legal regime for the 

 use of the deep ocean floor may eventually be agreed upon, it should ensure that 

 the deep ocean floor will be open to exploration and use by all states, without 

 discrimination. 



United Nations interest in the problems of the seas is not new: we are not 

 writing on a clean slate in considering how the General Assembly can best deal 

 with the question which has been brought before us. In the fifties, after extended 

 work by the United Nations International Law Commission, a number of impor- 

 tant Law of the Sea Conventions were adopted at a conference held in Geneva in 

 1958. One of these, the Convention on the Continental Shelf, is of particular 

 interest to us in considering legal arrangements which might apply to the 

 deep ocean floor. Under these conventions, the General Assembly was assigned 

 the responsibility of deciding what steps should be taken with respect to requests 

 for revision of the conventions. 



A number of bodies in the United Nations have also given careful nttention 

 to other marine problems. Through the Intergovernmf^ntal Oeeanngrnphio Com- 

 mission. TTNESrO has actively encouraged scientific activities in the field of 

 ocpfinography : the Food and Agriculture Organization has been concerned with 

 the development and conservation of fisheries; the World Meteorological Orenni- 

 zation is studvinir the influence of the oceans on weather: and the Intergovern- 

 mental Maritime Consultative Organization has done invaluable v.-ork in safet.v 

 at sea. 



^ Source : United Nations Press Release USX-1S2. November 8, lOfi'i 



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