_ United States Department of the Interior APPENDIX IV OFFICE OF THE SECRETARY WASHINGTON, D.C. 20240 NOV 23 1984 Mr. J. Dexter Peach Director Resources, Community, and Economic Development Division U.S. General Accounting Office Dear Mr. 20548 Peach: We have reviewed the GAO draft report on Issues Affecting U.S. Territorial and Insular Policy, and the following are our comments: Chapter 1 Page 1 In the first paragraph, second sentence, you may wish to substitute “sometimes known" for “commonly known". The usage of “flag territories” is new and not uniformly embraced. Later in the first paragraph, of the nine island areas named, five are by Executive order within the administrative responsibility of the Interior Department. It would therefore be more accurate if the second to the last sentence of the paragraph were revised to read: "These smaller U.S. possessions are for the most part within the administrative responsibility of the Department of the Interior but some are administered either by the Coast Guard or by components of the Department of Defense." In the second paragraph, second sentence, it would be desirable to change “became the trustee" to “became the administering authority”. The former phrase carries with it substantial possible legal consequences which have been the subject of recent litigation and which may give rise to more. Page 2 While the United States has strong national security interests in the Pacific and Caribbean Territorial and Insular areas, it should be noted that tnese territories are also extensions of America, and have been so for almost a century in the case of Puerto Rico, Guam and the Virgin Islands. In the third full paragraph, because in 1969 there were no separate “governments" in the Trust Territory, it would be well to substitute for “the Micronesian governments of" the words “political leaders in.“ 64 200027) Re ek Washington, D.C.