Foreign Relations held hearings on Senate resolutions submitted in 

 support of international control.^- 



House Support for the Malta Proposal 



Witnesses testifying in the House included several Members of Con- 

 gress in support of their own resolutions, representatives of Federal 

 agencie-s directly involved with the U.N. issue, and several representa- 

 tives of private, legal, and industrial organizations.^^ The Subcom- 

 mittee on International Organizations and Movements addressed itself 

 to the wording of the resolutions; the procedures used in arriving at 

 the U.S. Government's position on the pending legislation and the 

 Malta proposal; the operational marine programs of various U.S. 

 agencies ; and to the complex legal, political, and economic considera- 

 tions involved in this legislation. 



A number of witnesses Avho favored the Malta proposal identified 

 advantages that might be derived from international control, such 

 as : regulation of the depletion of mineral resources ; avoidance of an 

 anarchic rush to claim and exploit subsea reasources ; reduced danger 

 of marine pollution (through proper international control) ; re- 

 duced threat of a military race to exploit strategic advantages of 

 submarine weapons placement; provision of an independent income 

 for the United Nations ; and a general strengthening and maturity in 

 the U.N. itself, through the experience of administering the vast 

 area of the ocean floor. 



Proposal for U.N. Marine Resources Agency 



All the advantages mentioned above could be provided through a 

 specialized agency like a U.N. Marine Resources Agency. This agency 

 would "hold ownership rights and grant, lease, or use these rights in 

 accordance with the principles of economic efficiency and the well- 

 being of mankind. It should distribute the returns from such exploita- 

 tion in accordance with the directives issued by the U.N. General 

 Assembly." ^^ 



Concerning the establishment of an international or U.N. agency, 

 the Department of the Interior pointed out that the result would be 

 something comparable to what already exists in the Food and Agri- 

 culture Organization and to some extent in other organizations like 

 UNESCO (see Fig. 7). The agency would have responsibility for 

 coordinating exploration and research in the oceans along the same 

 lines as these other organizations ; so that there would not be anything 

 new and different about it. By analogy with agricultural research, it 

 was suggested that multinational programs tend to disseminate useful 

 results more globally than do single-nation or bilateral research 

 programs. 



U.N. agencies have primarily directed their attention to problems 

 of nations which have a low technical capacity of their own to carry 



*2 U.S. Congress, Senate. Committee on Foreign Relations. "Governing the Use of Ocean 

 Space." Hearings on S.J. Res. 1.11. S. Res. 172, and S. Res. 196. Held Nov. 29, 1967. 90th 

 Cong., first sess. (Washington, U.S. Government Printing Office, 1967), 71 pages. 



83 U.S. Congress. House. Committee on Foreign Affairs. "The Oceans : A Challenging 

 New Frontier ; a report together with hearings and additional documents and materials." 

 By Subcommittee on International Organizations and Movements. Hearings held June 12, 

 July 25, 1968. 90th Cong., second sess. H. Rept. No. 1957. (Washington, U.S. Government 

 Printing Office, 1968), 128 pages. 



^ "The United Nations and the Issue of Deep Ocean Resources * * *," op. cit., page 5. 



