582 NATIONAL OCEANOGRAPHIC PROGRAM LEGISLATION 



program at the time when you should be in executive session and 

 perhaps am delaying your deliberations, but I would like to take 



Mr. Rogers. We probably will not go into executive session today, 

 so feel free. 



Commander Walsh. Thank you, sir; I hope it is not my fault. 



I would like to take the position perhaps of a summarization. I 

 have listened with interest in the last 3 weeks to your hearings. I 

 am greatly interested in what you are doing and the great progress 

 that you have made but am concerned about a couple of points which 

 I thought I would like to propose at this time. 



One, is that I feel that the real issue here is somewhat lacking in 

 emphasis, though certainly not in the verbiage of the many bills that 

 have been presented. In reading through these this morning, the 

 preamble or the first sections are very accurate, but I felt that in 

 the testimony we have not developed the principal issue involved, 

 and this is the projection of our national sovereignty into the world 

 ocean. 



We have talked a great deal about resources, from platitudes to very 

 specific citations of ocean resources, both food and mineral ; we have 

 alluded to the military aspects of oceanography in various areas; 

 but I feel the real impact is : Is the United States prepared to pro- 

 ject its national sovereignty into the world ocean ? 



Is that not the real question here today and through these hear- 

 ings? 



That it is, is certainly reflected by the level of activity that we are 

 now conducting. 



The Navy, in ocean sciences and technology, and I am emphasizing 

 technology also, is supporting, I would say, up to 80 percent of our 

 national effort because we, that is the Navy, represents this projection 

 of our national seapower into the world ocean. 



I think this point should be emphasized. 



I find no fault, of course, with the legislation which recognizes this. 

 I am just saying that m the hearings I left that we might have been 

 somewhat silent in this aspect, and the emphasis really is here, because 

 without a strong seapower the considerations of the use of the sea, of 

 the ocean and sea resources, are really meaningless. 



We are a traditional seapower, and I feel that this seapower of our 

 Nation has been manifested in cycles. We had a cycle when President 

 Theodore Roosevelt created the great white fleet and emerged on the 

 world scene as a great seapower. 



Another cycle was the buildup before World War II, and now I feel 

 perhaps your deliberations are contributing considerably to a new 

 resurgence of seapower, because I mean seapower not only as a mili- 

 tary projection of our national power, but also a strong merchant 

 marine, a strong fishing industry, and a strong resources industry in- 

 volved in the oceans; but principally it is a projection of our national 

 power. 



Another point that concerns me is that we have, in these delibera- 

 tions, heard a great deal about ocean sciences, but sciences without any 

 application are — I will not say "worthless," that would be too harsh a 

 term — ^but without application they are somewhat academic. 



I see our national program as analogous to an object sitting on a 

 tripod. One leg of this tripod is the environmental science, ocean- 



