Scope of activities The scope of the Bureau's operations continues to enlarge as additional drugs are made subject to the narcotic laws. Opium and coca leaves and their derivatives have been under national control since 1915; marihuana has been under control since 1937; isonipecaine, a synthetic known more generally as meperidine and internationally as pethidine, was brought under control in 1944; and under the act of March 8, 1946 (26 U.S.C. 4731(g)), 35 other synthetic narcotics have been brought under control through findings by the Secretary of the Treasury that the drugs possess addiction liability similar to morphine, and proclamation by the President to have been so found. Internationally, opium, coca leaves, marihuana, and their more important derivatives have been under control by the terms of the Opium Conventions of 1912, 1925, and 1931. In addition, under Article II of the 1931 Convention and the international Protocol of November 19, 1948, nine secondary derivatives of opium and 45 synthetic drugs have been found to have addicting qualities similar to morphine or cocaine and have been brought under international control by a procedure similar to that provided in our national legislation. The agreement to limit the production of opium to world medical and scientific needs signed at the United Nations on June 23, 1953, and approved by the United States Senate August 20, 1954, was followed by Senate Resolution 290 of June 14, 1956, urging other governments also to ratify. This Protocol requires the ratifications of 25 states including any three of seven named producing countries and any three of nine named manufacturing countries. As of March 23, 1960, 38 ratifications had been deposited including six from manufacturing countries and two from producing countries. When one additional producing state has deposited its ratification the Protocol will become effective and should then accomplish a much further reduction in the amount of opium available to the illicit traffic. Training schools The Bureau's narcotics training school, staffed by 20 experts in narcotic law enforcement, has now graduated 573 State and municipal law enforcement officers representing 259 separate agencies from 39 States, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico. Fifty-seven. foreign law enforcement officers, representing 28 separate agencies, from Afghanistan, Belgium, Canada, Ecuador, Ethiopia, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Japan, Jordan, Korea, Lebanon, Mexico, Peru, Philippines, Thailand, and Turkey also have attended. Twenty-five narcotic agents attended the Treasury Law Enforcement School and five attended its Technical Equipment Operators' School. Twenty-five employees were paid cash awards totaling $5,285 under the incentive awards program for adopted suggestions or special acts and services. Management improvement During the fiscal year the Bureau has moved to effect a complete changeover from the complicated avoirdupois system of pounds, ounces, and grains to the simpler metric system of kilograms, grams, and milligrams for manufacturers' reporting and accounting for narcotic drugs, and a simplified form for wholesalers' annual inventories has been provided. The method of handling appropriation allotments for the various Bureau activities has been streamlined and improvements have been made in the methods of preparing budget estimates. A procedure has been adopted to make available a "Master Expended Advance Fund List" for checking against moneys found on suspects for possible clues providing leads to potential conspiracy investigations. Electric card-sorting equipment has been installed to secure accurate and current statistical information more rapidly. United States Coast Guard A basic duty of the United States Coast Guard is enforcing or assisting in enforcing Federal laws on the high seas and waters subject to the jurisdiction of the United States. These laws govern navigation, shipping, other maritime operations, and the allied protection of life and property. The Service also promotes the safety and efficiency of merchant vessels; develops, establishes, maintains and operates aids to maritime navigation for commerce and the Armed Forces; maintains a state of readiness to function as a specialized service in the Navy in time of war; and trains and maintains an adequate Reserve force. Title 14 of the United States Code defines the primary duties of the Service. Search and rescue operations The responsibility for coordination of search and rescue operations for the western Atlantic and most of the Pacific Ocean is vested in the Coast Guard. Some typical examples of assistance by air and surface units of the Service during the fiscal year were as follows: Aircraft ditching.-On September 25, 1959, a Navy P5M seaplane which had ditched off the Oregon coast was located through radio contact by a Coast Guard UF aircraft. After sighting 10 survivors in two rafts 110 miles off shore, the plane crew directed the U.S.C.G.C. Yocona to the scene and a successful night rescue was made. Vessel explosion.-The tanker Amoco Virginia, with a cargo of aviation gasoline, exploded and caught fire at Houston, Tex., on November 8, 1959. Coast Guard units in the Galveston-Houston area assisted local and Federal agencies in extinguishing the blaze. For the following 10 days Coast Guard air and surface units controlled a dangerous situation by spreading foam to reduce the fire hazard of leaking aviation gas, directing harbor traffic, pumping out the damaged vessel, and moving her to a safe dock. Evacuation of Russian seaman.-At the request of the Russian Embassy on December 9, 1959, an ill Russian seaman was removed by the crew of a Coast Guard UF plane from the M/S Jana in the Bering Sea. With a doctor and interpreter aboard, the plane landed in a blinding snow storm at Dutch Harbor where the patient was transferred to a hospital. Japanese vessel assisted. On February 13, 1960, a Coast Guard R5D aircraft from Honolulu dropped a pump to the Japanese training vessel Toyama Maru, which had radioed that it was taking on water and in danger of sinking off Palmyra Island. The pump controlled flooding until the arrival of the U.S.C.G.C. Bering Strait whose crew made repairs to the Japanese vessel, using 2,500 pounds of sand and cement parachuted by a Honolulu based SC-130B plane. Air Force KC-97 aircraft downed.-Eleven of fourteen crewmen aboard an Air Force KC-97 plane, which had been forced down in the water off Cape Canaveral after an engine failure, were rescued within four hours through the joint efforts of the Coast Guard and other military air and surface units and assistance by merchant vessels. The search was coordinated through the search and rescue facility of the Seventh Coast Guard District. A statistical summary of search and rescue assistance for fiscal 1960 follows. The numbering provisions of the Federal Boating Act (46 U.S.C. 527) became effective on April 1, 1960. The 38 States whose numbering systems have been approved under this authority reported the numbering of 744,000 boats by the close of the fiscal year. In the remaining States without numbering plans, the Coast Guard as of July 1, 1960, had assigned numbers to 180,000 boats. Between March 10 and December 31, 1959, 2,031 recreational boating accidents, causing 488 fatalities and 875 injuries, were reported. The act of May 10, 1956 (46 U.S.C. 390a-g), has brought approximately 4,036 small passenger vessels under inspection and certification since June 1, 1958, an increase of about 1,000 vessels during fiscal 1960. There were 3,768 marine casualties reported and investigated, 10 of which were considered major and investigated by marine boards of investigation. These inquiries disclosed that 153 persons lost their lives from vessel casualties, 154 from personal accidents, and 228 from miscellaneous causes. No passengers' lives were lost from casualties to inspected passenger vessels over 65 feet in length, but there were 3 passenger fatalities aboard those under 65 feet long. The most serious casualties of the year stemmed from an explosion and fire on the S.S. Amoco Virginia in the Houston ship channel, which claimed eight lives, and the capsizing of the M.V. National Pride in the Gulf of Mexico, with a loss of 11 lives. As amended by an act approved September 9, 1959 (46 U.S.C. 481), section 4488 of the Revised Statutes now permits the use of inflatable life rafts aboard United States flag vessels. Specifications for this gear were published, tests conducted, and eight different sizes of the rafts were approved by the end of calendar 1959. An all plastic life jacket, which should have a longer life than other types and none of their shortcomings, has been developed and tested. Specifications for it will be published soon. A digest of certain marine inspection activities for the fiscal year follows. Nine regular committee meetings and one public hearing were held by the Merchant Marine Council, and regulations concerning the following were promulgated: Inflatable life rafts, State motorboat numbering systems, courses of instruction for radar observer, radar observer billets on radar-equipped vessels, distress signals for small vessels, retention of vessel inspection records, bulk ore cargoes, and miscellaneous amendments. The Coast Guard continued to promote marine safety, participating in numerous conferences to that end during the year. Two million copies of a pamphlet entitled Pleasure Craft, which includes highlights of the Federal Boating Act, suggestions for boating safety, and minimum legal requirements, have been printed for distribution to the public. The Proceedings of the Merchant Marine Council, a publication distributed to those interested in marine safety activities of the Coast Guard, won the National Safety Council award of merit for exceptional service in safety promotion for the third consecutive year. Safety of life at sea conference.-A diplomatic conference, with 45 countries represented, was held in London from May 17 to June 17, 1960, to revise and update the 1948 International Convention on Safety of Life at Sea. Some of the safety improvements resulting from this conference are: Broadening of the conditions under which passenger ships are required to meet a two compartment standard of subdivision; more effective fire protection requirements for passenger vessels and certain fire prevention standards to be applied to cargo ships for the first time; recognition of the inflatable life raft and standards for its use established; requiring more ships to monitor distress frequencies; and provisions for admitting nuclear powered ships to the ports of other nations. Merchant marine personnel. During the fiscal year, 69,867 documents were issued to merchant marine personnel, and 8,160 sets of shipping articles were prepared relating to the shipment and discharge of seamen. Merchant marine investigating sections in major United States ports and merchant marine details in foreign ports investigated 13,183 cases involving negligence, incompetence, and misconduct. Charges were preferred and hearings held by civilian examiners on 1,120 cases. Security checks were made of 19,288 persons desiring employment on merchant vessels. Law enforcement Statistics reflecting the volume of enforcement work by the Coast Guard during fiscal 1960 follow. The Coast Guard performed services for other Federal agencies as follows: Alcohol Tax Unit, Treasury (aircraft days). Weather Bureau: Coast and Geodetic Survey (aerial surveys days). Fish and Wildlife (censuses taken).. 123 38 382 86, 147 38, 440 On June 30, 1960, there were 39,746 aids to navigation maintained in the navigable waters of the United States, its Territories and possessions, the Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands, and at overseas bases. A summary of those maintained at the close of each of the last two fiscal years follows. 1 Includes three experimental loran-B and three experimental loran-C stations. 13, 506 39,932 13, 753 4,580 474 39, 746 |