NATIONAL OCEANOGRAPHIC PROGRAM LEGISLATION 567 



And. you go on to say in other subparagraphs there that other needs 

 are the development of programs to devise new ocean-engineering tech- 

 niques and equipments and systems to exploit ocean resources at the 

 depths at which they exist. And, then you talk, in the next subsec- 

 tion, 6, of : 



Study, development, and prosecution of new international law and/or treaties 

 to protect claims, rights of nations, and individuals engaged in deep ocean 

 projects. 



And the fourth one : 



Studies to really determine what use and importance these resources can be 

 for today, tomorrow, and the more distant future. 



Those in essence are really the objectives of legislation which Mr. 

 Eivers and I filed at the start of this session. 



Mr. Stephax. Yes, sir. 



Mr. Keith. And I had filed in earlier years a bill which has passed 

 the CongTess once and which was not signed, and which later on was 

 passed by this committee but did not get concurrence a second time 

 from the Senate. It is the one that is essentially the same as Mr. 

 Lennon's now. 



And sort of as a last resort I said, well, let us get into this thing, 

 let us have some on-the-job training in a way which can give us these 

 techniques and give us the coordination of effort to accomplish some of 

 the major objectives that we have all been talking about. That was 

 thp r-^Rcon for the Continental Shelf exploration bill. 



By assigning that role and that mission to a particular commission 

 and getting on with the show, we could, it seems to me, learn a great 

 deal not only about oceanography but about the resources of the 

 Continental Shelf, its potential contribution, and at the same time we 

 could learn a lot about organization for an attack on these problems. 



I am delighted to see that your testimony here supports the objec- 

 tives of that mission with very high priority, and I would hope that 

 simultaneous with the passage of Congressman Rogers' very thought- 

 ful approach to this problem, we could begin to actually attack it by 

 substantial effort which I feel would be certainly as remunerative as 

 Operation Moho and not any more expensive, at least in the initial 

 phases, and which probably would be much more productive in the 

 development of our oceanographic resources. 



Would you care to comment ? 



Mr. Stephaist. I do feel, sir, as I stated here, even though these were 

 not listed in a particular order of priority, that I did consider this 

 survey of the Continental Shelf to be one of the top priority items. I 

 felt this was a part, an extremely important part, of the whole problem, 

 which I recommended the commission study, and that, as the commis- 

 sion went to the execution of individual problems, they could properly 

 recommend highly, the passage of a bill of the type of your bill, sir, 

 very strongly. 



]Mr. Keith. Ever since I have been ui the CongTess we have been 

 talking about ways and means. I think it is time that we get out and 

 undertake the job. and that is the reason for my bill. 



Mr. Stephan. Yes, sir. 



]Mr. Keith. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. 



Mr. EoGEKS. Thank you, ISIr. Keith. 



