TA UNITED STATES OF AMERICA CONTENTS WITNESSES Allen, Ward P., Director, Office of Inter-American Political Affairs, Bureau Page 30 Gerlach, Dr. Arch C., Chairman, Ú.S. National Section, Pan American Institute of Geography and History (PAIGH).. Burt, Dr. Arthur L., coordinator for maps and publications, Bureau of Intelligence and Research, Department of State. Cummins, Sidney S., Office of International Administration, Bureau of 2 STATEMENTS AND MEMORANDUMS SUPPLIED U.S. contributions to PAIGH during its period of membership.. Recent accomplishments of PAIGH benefiting the United States- Letter from Dr. Arch C. Gerlach to Hon. Armistead I. Selden, Jr., including abstract of minutes of PAIGH session relating to new quota system and Letter from Agency for International Development (AID) to Hon. Armi- stead I. Selden, Jr., relative to AID cartographic and cadastral activities TO AMEND THE JOINT RESOLUTION PROVIDING FOR MEMBERSHIP OF THE UNITED STATES IN THE PAN AMERICAN INSTITUTE OF GEOGRAPHY AND HISTORY AND TO AUTHORIZE APPROPRIATIONS THEREFOR WEDNESDAY, MAY 18, 1966 HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, Washington, D.C. The Subcommittee on Inter-American Affairs met, pursuant to notice at 10 a.m., in room 2255 Rayburn House Office Building, the Honorable Armistead I. Selden, Jr., chairman of the subcommittee, presiding. Mr. SELDEN. The committee will come to order. The Subcommittee on Inter-American Affairs is meeting this morning to consider Senate Joint Resolution 108, to amend the joint resolution providing for membership of the United States in the Pan American Institute of Geography and History and to authorize appropriations therefor. (The resolution follows:) [S. J. Res. 108, 89th Cong., 2d sess.] JOINT RESOLUTION To amend the joint resolution providing for membership of the United States in the Pan American Institute of Geography and History and to authorize appropriations therefor. Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That the Act of August 31, 1954 (68 Stat. 1008), is hereby amended by deleting "$50,000" in section (b) and substituting "$75,000" and adding "(c) Such additional sums as may be needed annually for the payment of all necessary expenses incident to participation by the United States in the activities thereof." Passed the Senate May 12, 1966. EMERY L. FRAZIER, Secretary. Mr. SELDEN. Our witnesses this morning will include Dr. Arch C. Gerlach, Chairman, U.S. National Section, Pan American Institute of Geography and History; Mr. Ward P. Allen, Director, Office of Inter-American Political Affairs, Bureau of Latin American Affairs, Department of State; and Mr. Sidney Cummins, international administration officer, Department of State. Our first witness this morning is Dr. Gerlach. STATEMENT OF DR. ARCH C. GERLACH, CHAIRMAN, U.S. NATIONAL SECTION, PAN AMERICAN INSTITUTE OF GEOGRAPHY AND HISTORY Dr. GERLACH. Thank you, sir, I think you have met my colleagues who are with me this morning. Mr. SELDEN. If you would like to introduce them for the record, I would be happy for you to do so. Dr. GERLACH. We have Mr. Allen, Mr. Cummins, Mr. Wohlfeld, Mr. Thigpen, Dr. Burt, and Mr. Miller, all from the Department of State. I am Chief of the Geography and Map Division in the Library of Congress and also serve, on a reimbursable basis, half time as staff geographer in the U.S. Geological Survey. Since 1957 I have been Chairman of the U.S. National Section for the PAIGH, and representative of the United States on the Institute's Directing Council. I did not seek either of those responsibilities, but because of my position in the field of cartography and geography and close connections to the field of history, the Department of State has asked me to serve in that capacity and I found it very interesting and worthwhile. I have been a professor of geography at the Universities of Wisconsin and Michigan, and I am a Vice President of the International Geographical Union. I work closely with the Hispanic Foundation in the Library of Congress, which is concerned with the history and culture of LatinAmerican areas. We are proposing that the $50,000 ceiling on quota payments to the PAIGH, which was established by Congress in 1954, be eliminated or at least raised to the current quota assessment of $151,350. There are three basic reasons why we ought to do this. The first is that we believe the Institute should change from a passive organization, which holds meetings and publishes documents, to a more dynamic organization that will carry out desirable projects in the field of cartography, geography, and history that require multilateral cooperation. My second point is that we agree that the Institute is justified in changing the basis of its quotas from population count to the formula which has long been applied to the Pan American Union and five of the six specialized organizations of the OAS, the PAIGH being the sixth. My third point is that the leadership and influence of the United States in the PAIGH will be substantially reduced if this country remains in arrears in its quota payments. The proposed increase of about $100,000 sounds large in terms of percentage but, comparatively speaking, it is not a great amount of money in international operations. It is the intent of the Institute to apply the increase exclusively to scientific and technical works that require international cooperation. This is so specified by its general assembly. The PAIGH has been existing on an annual budget of about $145,000 for some years, but most of that income has been applied to the fixed costs of staff meetings, publications, and the routine operations of the international organization, leaving very little for professional and technical activities. At a special general assembly called in 1963, and the Directing Council session which followed immediately thereafter, the PAIGH did forge a program for carrying out in priority sequence a series of specific projects as funds become available, and at the same time it increased the Institute's budget from $145,000 to $250,000 a year in order to have funds to carry on those projects. I should emphasize that the U.S. National Section has approved all of those projects as worthwhile, and as being directly pertinent to the work of agencies, institutions, and societies in the United States. In the documents which have been submitted for your consideration there is an introductory statement by me, and on pages 2 and 3 of that statement I have listed 10 of the projects which would be taken up first if funds become available. The first one of these is a small one, the improvement in functions and services of the central library so that they can install photoduplication equipment and provide some mail-order reference service, thus extending the facilities to all of the member countries instead of requiring that you go to Mexico City to use the library. This would only cost about $1,500 and we think that it ought to be done to benefit a great many people, including ourselves. It is unquestionably the best collection of materials on the Americas in this hemisphere outside of the United States and it contains some material which I have not found in the libraries of this country. Mr. MORSE. Where is that now, sir? Dr. GERLACH. It is in Mexico City at the headquarters of the Institute, which was established by the Mexican Government in 1928. The second project is the publication of a number of research results which have been achieved already in the pilot project of Ecuador. That pilot project of Ecuador was something which was recommended by the PAIGH a number of years ago, and then it was carried out largely by Ecuador at the expense of Ecuador. The PAIGH has put about $50,000 into it. The total project has cost more than a million and a half dollars. They have already published about 25 manuscripts-no, they published 37-they have 25 remaining. We think they ought to be published. Some of these are very fine works on the natural resources of the country, on works dealing with its road networks, archeological sites, history, folklore, and cultural heritage. A third project is a continuation of studies in the Gulf of Fonseca. This is a project in which a number of organizations have participated. The PAIGH has contributed about $25,000. UNESCO, OAS, the Inter-American Geodetic Survey, the International Union of Geodesy and Geophysics, and the National Cartographic Institute of Honduras, Guatemala, and Nicaragua have put a considerable amount of money, each more than $5,000, into this work. We feel that the results are directly applicable to the geologic, oceanographic, mineralogic studies that apply throughout our west coast as well as the Gulf of Fonseca and the Western Hemisphere countries that face on the Pacific. The fourth project is a series of technical cartographic enterprises, including the connection of geodetic networks between countries; the rectification of leveling in southern Chile; completion of gravimetric ties between the Pacific and the Atlantic along parallel 34° S.; and gravimetric determinations in South America. Each country has its own geodetic network, but there is no connection between them and they don't match up. |