Evening star., 1953-02-19
Mythical, Not Legal

In his letter to Defense Secretary Wilson
regarding the Nations offshore oil and gas
deposits, Attorney General Brownell has thrown
an interesting new light on the altogether
dubious nature Of one of Mr. Trumans last
official acts as President-his executive order
purporting to set aside all those deposits as q
naval reserve.
Since its announcement last January 16,
the order has been hailed in some quarters
notably among commentators who think that
Congress has no right to quitclaim to the States
the submerged lands within their historical
seaward boundaries-as an act of wisdom fully
justified in terms of law, morality national
defense and practically everything else To put
the case mildly, however this view is certainly
not shared by Mr.. Brownel Indeed, Mr.. Tru-
mans own Attorney General seems never to
have shared it, either.
Thus, as he has declared in his letter, Mr..
Brownell has carefully reviewed" the Justice
Departments file on the subject and has found
that the department-While under the direction
of Attorney General McGranery-objected, on
legal grounds, to proposals that the order be
promulgated as something authorized by the
So-called Naval Petroleum Reserves Act. Mr..
Brownell has found further that Mr.. Nc
Granery approved the order, as finally drafted
and issued, on the understanding that it did
1OI IL 1dCC OF III law, CTedCe
a naval petroleum reserve within the meaning
of" that act.
Mr.. Brownell, for his own part has made
clear to Mr.. Wilson-and to Congressional he
agrees with the McGranery position. He has
made clear, too, that the general effect of the
order, in his opinion, "is merely to transfer to
the Secretary of the Navy the authority over
these lands which had previously been con-
ferred upon the Secretary of the Interior" This
is another way of saying that the January 16
decree, though processing to set aside the Off
shore oil and gas deposits as a naval reserve,
actually has not established such reserve but
has created little more than myth. The reason
for this is that no law can be found to support
the action.
AT any rate, the record shows that MIR.
Truman's own Attorney General ruled out
efforts to use the Naval Petroleum Reserves
Act to legitimatize the order. The language
of the act presumably could not be interpreted
or stretched to give adequate legal cover to a
decree setting aside the submerged lands for
the Navy. Faced with this situation, and de-
termined to have his way, Mr. Truman-just
before retiring to private life-apparently de-
cided that he did not need the sanction of
written law but could take over the oil and
gas. deposits merely by invoking once again
those famous inherent powers" of the presi-
dency that the Supreme Court declared to be
nonresident when he tried to employ them to
seize the steel industry.
One can only surmise why Mr.. Truman
chose to make such valedictory gesture. But
Mr.. BroWnell's letter strongly supports the
criticism that greeted the order when it was
first issued last month-namely, that the retr-
ing President was interested chiefly in carrying
out a slick political maneuver designed to en-
barrass the incoming Eisenhower administration
(pledged in favor of quitclairn action) by
branding as a "give-away" and menace to
national security any fair and upright effort
to settle the misnamed ''tidelands" issue.
settlement of that issue is long overdue,
and Congress-which is fully empowered to
revoke the offshore order-is now primed to act
accordingly. President Eisenhower, moreover,
is ready to approve the necessary legislation
If 1t reaches him in form that fully protects
the interests of the whole Nation In the sub
merged wealth lying beyond the States histor-
ical seaward boundaries. Mr.. Truman's mythical
naval reserve is not going to block that.