1090 
would have a legitimate interest in the question, and a contribution to 
make to it. 
Mr. Lennon. Do you think it would be helpful, then, if many of 
these were combined in a single independent Government structure 
that was answerable only to the Chief Executive? Would it be helpful 
to the State Department if these were brought together in a single 
agency ? 
Mr. Potrack. The principal interest of the State Department in the 
orientation of the Government in this and in other fields is with respect 
to developing a coherent approach to our international obligations, 
and to the international community. 
We are interested in having the Government so behave that regard- 
less of who happens to be the ; spokesman for it, we speak with more or 
less a single voice when we speak to the rest of the world. 
It seems to me that there is more than one way in which this might 
be brought about. The organization approach is certainly one of the 
ways in which this might be done. 
Mr. Lennon. Did the Department of the Interior confer with you, 
or someone in the State Department, with relationship to the contracts 
or leases that it gave that were referred to by Assistant Secretary Train 
of the Department of the Interior read a few minutes ago? 
Mr. Potiacr. The Solicitor’s Office of the Interior Department and 
the Legal Adviser’s Office of the State Department have arranged for 
consultation on a continuing basis with respect to such matters, sir. 
Mr. Lennon. You mentioned the Marine Science Council, headed 
up by the Vice President, in which there are a number of Cabinet 
officers, officers of Cabinet level. Would you say that that has been 
helpful in coordinating these activities ? 
Mr. Potiack. In my opinion, it has been helpful. 
Mr. Lennon. Could you tell us why the administration fought or re- 
sisted the efforts of Congress to etablish the Marine Science Council ? 
Mr. Potuack. Well, that goes back several years. Suffice it to say 
that I congratulate the Con gress for the initiative it took in that 
regard. 
Mr. Lennon. They took the position that it would simply be an 
extension of the cold Interagency Committee on Oceanography. We 
took the position that it ought to be a higher level policy group, but 
the administration opposed that 
We finally insisted upon it, a ue within 6 months they were the first 
to acknowledge that it was 2 fine move on the part of Congress. 
But if we had followed the insistence of the administration, there 
would have been no National Marine Science Council such as we have 
today, that you‘have just commended, as well as every other witness. 
It is just an indication that sometimes the Congress is right. 
Mr. Potiack. J think they are right quite often. 
Mr. Lennon. Let us hope they will be right in this. regardless of 
whether we have to wait forever on the position of the administration 
OLMNOt: ; 
Are there any other questions, gentlemen ? 
Thank you, Mr. Pollack. I appreciate your candor and frankness. 
I for one, and other members of the committee, recognize the tur- 
bulence that you have to face in making known the position ot our 
country on the part of the State Department, which does speak for 
our country to the other nations of the world. 
