490 



lie concern about the use of the sea. The case for increased support of the fisheries 

 could be made more effectively in such an agency. 



It is most important to note that the first question and the major question is 

 whether to create this new agency. If it should be created, the numerous other 

 recommendations would be considered during the development of programs and 

 would still be subject to modification by Congress. If it should not he created, 

 then the several programs concerned with the oceans would go their separate 

 ways and be inadequately coordinated and without the strength to obtain the 

 support the overall program needs. 



State of Mississippi, 

 Executive Department, 

 Jackson, Miss., May 13, 1969. 

 Hon. Alton Lennon, 



Chairman, Subcommittee on Oceanography, Committee on Merchant Marine and 

 Fisheries, U.S. House of Representatives, Washington, D.C. 

 Dear Congressman : Pursuant to a statement by Congressman William M. 

 Colmer before your subcommittee in session this week, I am submitting herewith 

 my own statement supporting that of Mr. Colmer. 



I would appreciate your entering these remarks and the attached Executive 

 Order No. 45 into the documentary report of your subcommittee hearings. 

 Thanking you, and with warm personal regards, I am 

 Sincerely yours, 



John Bell AVilliams, 



Governor. 



Statement bt Hon. John Bell Williams, Governor of Mississippi 



Mr. Chaii'man, the following statement is made in order to document the 

 efforts by the State of Mississippi, to date, in the desire to further a Federal- 

 State program in Oceanography. 



All of the coastal and Great Lakes States are in accord in the recognition of the 

 need for a strong Federal program by which the several states may formulate 

 their own meaningful programs for national benefit. Mississippi recognized very 

 early the impact of State planning for substantive formulation of Federal design. 

 Federal guidelines have been designed by executive and legislative direction and 

 the Marine Sciences Commission Report was completed and published early this 

 year. 



Mississippi, by its very nature geographically at the center of the Gulf Coast 

 crescent, has fostered and will continue to develop a strong role in oceanic en- 

 deavor. A dramatic signal of State purpose was the announcement in 1967 that 

 Mississippi would build the most modern shipyard in the world at Pascagoula, 

 thereby, assisting the United States in regaining world stature it once held in 

 this industry. The State of Mississippi, by special legislative action, demonstrated 

 faith and endorsement of such a facility by the issuance of $130 million in bonds 

 for construction of the huge installation. The shipyard, upon completion, will be 

 leased to Litton Industries, Ingalls Shipbuilding Division for operation. Comple- 

 tion is scheduled for 1970 at which time the most mechanized assembly-line 

 method of production coupled with advanced marine technology will be in sup- 

 port of national goals in ship construction. On May 2, 1969 it was announced that 

 Ingalls had been awarded a $1 billion contract by the Navy for nine LHA all 

 purpose assault ships. 



Mississippi has two deep water ports : at Pascagoula, and at Gulfport which 

 the state owns and operates. Gulfport presently represents a State investment of 

 $10 million with a bond limitation of $25 million. Gulfport is the number one 

 banana unloading facility on the Gulf Coast and the second largest in the LTnited 

 States. This is also the leading combined raw jute and cotton bagging center in 

 the United States. 



Four major Federal facilities enhance the position of Mississippi in the develop- 

 ing marine sciences. The NASA/Mississippi Test Facility at Bay St. Louis rep- 

 resents a Federal investment of over $400 million. This facility is already very 

 much oriented toward the marine science field. Most notably and in fact presently 

 in operation is BOMEX (Barbados Oceanographic and Meteorological Experi- 

 ment) under the direction of ESSA (Environmental Science Services Administra- 

 tion), but jointly sponsored by several Federal agencies. The State of Mississippi 

 has made available, to this project, the Gulfport harbor facilities for dockage 



