Statement by the President on Extending the Automated Merchant Vessel Report System to the Pacific Coast.

IN 1958, the United States Coast Guard inaugurated a program of mutual maritime assistance called Automated Merchant Vessel Report, or AMVER.

Under this program, any vessel of any nation making an offshore voyage in the Atlantic may, if it wishes, periodically report its position to the AMVER nerve center in New York City. This information, along with available data on the search and rescue capabilities of the ship, is fed into an electronic computer. The computer keeps constant track of the ship's precise location. Should any emergency occur, any recognized search and rescue agency of any nation may request--and promptly receive--from AMVER accurate and pertinent data on the predicted whereabouts of any ship that has taken advantage of AMVER.

Since the start of the program 7 years ago, more than 8,000 vessels of all maritime nations have chosen to participate voluntarily in the AMVER program. While unheralded, this program represents a significant and valuable contribution to cooperation among nations and reflects the purpose of our Nation impatiently pursuing the tangible works of peace.

Because of the success achieved by the AMVER program in the Atlantic, I am privileged today to announce that it will be expanded to include the Pacific coast as well as the Atlantic coast.

The headquarters for the Pacific coast operation will be operated at San Francisco.

We are thus achieving another significant step in this country's efforts to advance the works of peace and to extend the hand of friendship in peril or in need anywhere in the world.