NATIONAL OCEANOGRAPHIC PROGRAM LEGISLATION 47 



tunities which may add substantially to the wealth of this country. 

 As the bills point out, efforts to exploit this source of wealth are 

 called for. 



Nevertheless, in my opinion, it would be premature for several 

 reasons to enact H.R. 5884 or H.R. 6009. At this time, the extent 

 to which industry is prepared to invest private funds in the extraction 

 of wealth from the Continental Shelf is not clear. For this reason, 

 it is not clear that the provision of funds to industry, as provided by 

 the bills, is the necessary or proper direction of Federal activity. The 

 primary need may well be for guidance and consultation at this stage 

 and further clarification of the legal status of resource exploitation. 



Furthermore, I have some reservations with respect to the pro- 

 posed administrative provisions. The addition of councils, com- 

 missions, boards, committees, and similar groups reporting directly to 

 the President is generating a situation which tends to make an existing 

 difficult situation almost impossible. For this reason, if any of the 

 functions proposed in the bills are established in law, serious considera- 

 tion should be given to placing them under the general jurisdiction of 

 an existing major agency or department. 



My reservations with respect to the bills relate not to the significance 

 of the subject with which they deal, but rather with the wisdom of 

 enacting a law which would establish functions and allocate responsi- 

 bilities and funds when it is not clear that the approach taken in the 

 bills is the one which would be adopted if all of the alternatives had 

 been thoroughly explored. 



At this time, I think that a thorough and detailed review of the 

 enormous potentialities of the Continental Shelf, and of priorities 

 among siu^veys, research, and development of tools and instruments 

 in the context of the entire set of problems, needs, and opportunities 

 should take precedence over the enactmient at this time of a statute 

 of the kind proposed in H.R. 5884 and H.R. 6009. 

 Sincerely yours, 



Donald F. Hornig, Director. 



Department of State, 

 Washington, July 30, 1965. 

 Hon. Herbert C. Bonner, 



Chairman, Committee on Merchant Marine and Fisheries, 

 House of Representatives. 



Dear Mr. Chairivian: Your letter of March 19, 1965, requested 

 the Department's comments on H.R. 5884 and H.R. 6009, bills to 

 provide a program of marine exploration and development of the 

 resources of the Continental Shelf. The following comments and 

 suggestions are made for your consideration. 



The Department would interpose no objection to the enactment 

 of the bills from the standpoint of foreign relations. In fact, the 

 Department believes that the bills might prove most useful in the 

 development of oceanic capability and use which would not only 

 provide a source of raw material for our economy, as the bills contem- 

 plate, but forestall domination of the ocean by forces inimical to our 

 welfare. 



The following specific conmaents would apply if the Congress 

 decides to take action on the bills. 



