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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.