- But my limited knowledge, I feel, is shared by the great proportion of our population. Our late President, John F. Kennedy, once answered a question on why this country is taking the lead in exploring outer space. The President said, "Because it is there and we know very little about it.”

President Johnson stated in a letter to the Honorable Speaker of the House recently, "We are looking forward to a period where our investment in ocean research may bear fruit in terms of strengthening our national defense."

I believe the establishment of a National Oceanographic Council with the authority of full-time direction and subsequent funding is necessary as it will be a forerunner to even larger operations in oceanography, which I again believe, is inevitable.

In conclusion, Mr. Chairman, I would like to stress one very important factor. In the past and at the present, a great deal of criticism has been leveled at the Federal Government for interfering in the private sector of our economy.

Some of this criticism has been warranted and some of it has not been warranted.

I know of no greater opportunity for the Federal Government to assist the private sector of the economy and to open the horizon for a commercial and industrial exploration of our oceans than with the passage of this legislation.

The Government with its vast resources and experience must avail itself again to bolster the concept of the free enterprise system by taking the initiative to create a directing body for marine research and development.

It is the duty of the Congress and the Executive to lay the groundwork for the exploration of an unknown field of endeavor. As we have learned in the past and as it will probably always be in the future, private industry will be encouraged to begin programs of their own or to increase existing activity in this very important field.

I would like to thank you, Mr. Chairman and members of your committee, for listening to my testimony and hope that it might contribute in some small way to a decision that you might make later on and I am sure all of those who are being heard appreciate your very fine courtesy.

Mr. LENNON. Congressman Huot, I want to highly commend you for a very splendid statement in support of your bill, H.R. 7798. Would you be available tomorrow morning at 10 in order that some of us may ask you a few questions along with the other members? Mr. Huoт. I would be delighted to, Mr. Chairman.

Mr. LENNON. Thank you very much.

The committee will stand adjourned until tomorrow morning at 10 o'clock, at which time the hearings will be resumed in this particular room, unless you are otherwise notified.

If we get another room we will let you hear from us.

Thank you very much.

(Whereupon, at 12:15 p.m., the hearing was recessed to reconvene at 10 a.m., Wednesday, August 4, 1965.)

NATIONAL OCEANOGRAPHIC PROGRAM LEGISLATION

WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 4, 1965

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES,

SUBCOMMITTEE ON OCEANOGRAPHY OF THE
COMMITTEE ON MERCHANT MARINE AND FISHERIES,

Washington D.C. The subcommittee met at 10:15 a.m., pursuant to recess, in the caucus room, Cannon House Office Building, Hon. Alton Lennon (chairman of the subcommittee) presiding.

Mr. LENNON. The committee will resume its hearings from the recess of yesterday.

Our first witness this morning, is our friend and colleague from Massachusetts, and a very able member of this committee, Congressman Hastings Keith. I believe you have authored one of the bills we are considering today.

STATEMENT OF HON. HASTINGS KEITH, A REPRESENTATIVE IN CONGRESS FROM THE STATE OF MASSACHUSETTS

Mr. KEITH. Yes, Mr. Chairman, I am the sponsor of H.R. 6009 and I greatly appreciate the opportunity to make this brief statement. As a member of the subcommittee and one who ardently supports an expanded national oceanographic program, I want to note that I am going to remain as objective as possible in the consideration of all of these bills. Like you, I am anxious to hear the testimony of not only my colleagues, who have sponsored these 16 or 17 bills, but also the departmental witnesses and the experts from science, education and industry.

My bill is companion to bills filed by Senator Bartlett, who testified yesterday, and Congressman Ralph Rivers. It would "provide a program of marine exploration and development of the resources of the Continental Shelf." It would do this by creating a special commission and funding a special exploration and development fund.

Within the past few days, we have received the various departmental reports requested by the chairman. Frankly, I was rather disappointed to learn that they are signing the same old song-the words to which go something like this-"While the Department is in favor of the purpose of the bill, it is believed that its functions would overlap the duties and responsibilities currently vested in other offices and agencies." Another version is to the effect that the idea may be a good one, but it would be "premature" at this time.

In short, we have received the customary plea from the executive branch as in other years and with other bills, for retention of the status

quo.

I couldn't disagree more with this negative and shortsighted outlook, and that is why I filed H.R. 6009. Another factor that prompted my interest in this particular approach was the convention on the Continental Shelf, which entered into force for the United States on June 10, 1964. The convention, as the subcommittee knows, recognizes the rights and responsibilities of a littoral nation to the resources of the Continental Shelf to a depth of 200 meters-and beyond that, to the limits of our technical capabilities.

Mr. Chairman, I have had this large map prepared to illustrate the area with which my bill is concerned. Prepared through the cooperation of the Coast and Geodetic Survey, it depicts the limits of the Shelf to the 200-meter curve. I have an 8 by 10 black and white photograph of this same map, which I will be glad to make available to the subcommittee for the hearing record.

Mr. LENNON. Without objection, the map may appear at this point in the record.

(The map referred to faces this page.)

Mr. KEITH. This international agreement not only safeguards our coastal resources, it presents to us a challenge which must be met. There is just no question that as a nation we are ultimately going to have to exploit the resources of the oceans-it will be a matter of survival. It is imperative, as a world leader, that the United States recognize this in a meaningful way in the very near future.

H.R. 6009 provides the machinery for beginning to meet this challenge right now. The commission for which it provides can be at work, in earnest, and pioneering projects can be initiated and funded while the Congress and the executive branch further consider the wisdom of creating an all-encompassing National Oceanographic Agency or the even broader concept proposed by some members, which would establish a distinct Department of Marine and Atmospheric Affairs.

Another very important aspect of my bill and those filed by Senator Bartlett and Congressman Ralph Rivers is that careful provision is made to make private enterprise and private industry full partners in the exploration and development of hydrospace. This is the greatest advantage our free society has over a nation like the Soviet Union, which clearly ranks oceanography as a national priority program. The competitive spirit and technical excellence of American industry can be a tremendous asset in the race to unlock the mysteries of the sea and to put its vast resources to work for the security and the economic welfare of the free world.

Perhaps this particular bill's greatest immediate virtue is that it is a sound and workable compromise somewhere midway between the superagency approach-the so-called Wet-NASA-and the other end of the spectrum of proposals before the subcommittee, which is basically a statement of purpose and congressional interest coupled with a legislative affirmation of what is currently being done in the national oceanographic program by the exceutive branch with existing executive authority. Congressman Bob Wilson's NOA, National Oceanographic Agency, may be too ambitious at this time, in a political sense. The bills at the other extreme, in my opinion, are not commensurate with the challenge.