332. Letter From the Secretary of Defense (McElroy) to the Secretary of State1
My Dear Mr. Secretary: On February 11 a meeting was held in the Office of the Under Secretary of State between representatives of the Departments of State, Interior, and Defense.2 The meeting was also attended by the principal delegate of the United States to the forthcoming Geneva Conference on the Law of the Sea. One of the purposes of the meeting was to consider the position of the United States with respect to the Canadian proposal for a contiguous zone for fisheries.
At the meeting there was unanimity of agreement on the principle that the first objective of the United States delegation at the Geneva Conference was to preserve the three mile limit, which is vital to the security of the United States. It was also generally agreed that the valuable commercial interests of some United States nationals in certain areas off foreign coasts should be protected so long as this did not prejudice the preservation of the three mile limit.
On the basis of these considerations it was further agreed that the instruction on contiguous zones for fisheries as drafted by the Department of State would be interpreted as giving the chairman of the United States delegation discretion as to whether and at what stage the United States should support compromise proposals such as the Canadian proposal.
The purpose of this letter is to confirm the understanding reached at this meeting and to indicate my approval of the action of the Department of Defense representative in this regard.3
Sincerely yours,