496 



Mr. Brittin. I have not. 



Mr. Dow. Have they expressed an interest in the Pardo resolution or 

 any opinion about it ? 



Mr. Pollack. Yes ; they have. 



Let me ask Mr. Popper to speak to that. 



Mr. Popper. They are quite interested naturallj^, and it is striking^ 

 to note that the watchword of their approach to tliis problem has been 

 caution. They were quite opposed to far-reaching activities in this field. 

 They even had doubts whether a conmiittee should be appointed to 

 make the study. I would say that they are very chary indeed about any 

 international activity in the deep ocean floor area. 



Mr. Keith. Will the gentleman yield ? 



Mr. Dow. Yes. 



Mr. Keith. It would appear to me that one of the reasons they were 

 cautious concerning international activity is because they have the 

 capacity to do for themselves what a committee might not. It seems 

 to me that with the tremendous fleet they have and with their 

 customary reserve about exposing the nature and extent of their 

 activity in science they might very well have made considerable 

 progress in this field, which has not been revealed either to the inter- 

 national organizations or to others with an interest in this field. I just 

 wondered how hard the information is that Mr. Brittin has to the 

 effect there was very little activity of the Russians in the field of deep 

 ocean floor research. 



Mr. Pollack. I was going to say we do follow rather closely this 

 general area, and I have seen nothing that would indicate any unusual 

 activity on the part of the Soviet Union with respect to the ocean 

 floor — mineral activity on the floor. 



Mr. Brittin. I share Mr. Pollack's view. Collaterally I might say. 

 Congressman Keith, this last month I spent quite a bit of time in Rome 

 in the FAO Conference, and it happened to coincide with the time 

 when the Pardo proposal was raised at the U.N. I do know that for 

 those who were interested in ocean matters at that conference the 

 Maltese proposal came pretty much as a surprise because many were 

 asking about it. I think it indicates also possibility that this was pretty 

 much of a unilateral move on the part of Mr. Pardo. 



Mr. Pollack. Mr. Popper? 



Mr. Popper. I would like to point out, Mr. Chairman, that the Soviet 

 Union did not oppose the establishment of the committee ; they voted 

 for it. So did all of the Communist bloc. They simply were expressing 

 what they call "the inadmissibility of any undue haste." I am quoting 

 from their official statement in the record. 



Mr. Keith. I do not want to take any more of Mr. Dow's time. 



Mr. Dow. I have another question, but you proceed. 



Mr. Keith. I went to Moscow in an effort to find out what they were 

 doing in the field of oceanography, and we were, to say the least, 

 somewhat circumscribed in our activities by the attitude of the Soviet 

 Government. And I do recall, I believe, that we were sort of scooped 

 in space. I suspect if we were on the space subcommittee and the State 

 Department officials were talking to us 6 months prior to sputnik, the 

 State Department would have told us that we were in pretty good 



