UN General Assembly
1969

this danger very clearly in the fields of trade and aid. It is a danger that takes other forms as well, and my Government is especially proud that it was the initiative of a mini-State, Malta, which led this Organization to undertake, for the first time, a study of the uses of the sea-bed and the ocean floor. 80. This is, of course, a matter of prime importance for an island-State like Barbados, and we look to the United Nations as the sole forum in which the matter can be debated and discussed with a view to removing this important resource from the catch-as-catch-can arena of power politics. It would be disastrous if the juridical anarchy over marine rights, which prevailed in the seven-teenth century, were to be allowed to prevail in this century in the areas under the sea. We know that it is only a question of time before large-scale exploitation of the sea-bed begins, and the technologically advanced countries are obviously the best equipped to glean the rich prizes