8 
(The documents referred to follow :) 
STATEMENT BY AMBASSADOR ARTHUR J. GOLDBERG, U.S. REPRESENTATIVE TO THE 
UnrItep NATIONS IN COMMITTEE I, ON THE QUESTION OF THE RESERVATION EX- 
CLUSIVELY FOR PEACEFUL PURPOSES OF THE SEA-BED AND THE OCEAN FLOOR, 
Nov. 8, 1967 
Mr. Chairman, this is my first opportunity to speak before the First Committee 
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, de- 
cisiveness 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 
eall for new efforts for international cooperation, both in promoting the explora- 
tion 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 realn. 
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 en- 
sure that the deep seas 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 a 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 im- 
portant 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 attention 
to other marine problems. Through the Inter-governmental Oveanographic Com- 
mission, UNESCO has actively encouraged scientific activities in the field of 
oceanography: the Food and Agriculture Organization has been concerned with 
the development and conservation of fisheries; the World Meteorological Or- 
ganization is studying the influence of the oceans on weather; and the Inter- 
governmental Maritime Consultative Organization has done invaluable work in 
safety at sea. 
The General Assembly last December endorsed a siudy of the present state 
of knowledge of marine resources requested by the Economic and Social Council, 
and asked the Secretary General to undertake, in addition, a survey of ac- 
tivities in marine science and technology. The Secretary General was also 
directed, as part of this study, to formulate proposals for expanding interna- 
tional cooperation and for improved marine education and training. In recogni- 
tion of the complexity of the subject, the Secretary General was given until 
1968 to report the results of his study and his recommendations. 
