(No response) .
I’d just like to offer a motion then that the Chairman be given the authority to hire and terminate staff and to set salaries, with the advice and consent and counsel, I should say, of the public members of the Commission. Congressman GILMAN: Second.
Mr. MARCHISHIN: There is a motion and it has been seconded. Is there any dis¬cussion?
(No response) All in favor? (Chorus of ayes) Against, opposed?
(No response)
Okay.
Mr. MAYNES: For the record, Senator DeConcini is not here, but you,might want the record to show, as I have indicated, he is very comfortable with that.
Congressman MICA: Does anyone else from any of the other offices have any ob¬jection to that?
(No response)
We, as I’ve indicated before, try to operate on a consensus.
Is there any other administrative business?
(No response)
Okay. I will try to be back in another 20 minutes.
Mr. MARCHISHIN: Okay. We were discussing Dr. Weres’s idea of approaching the Academy of Sciences of the Ukrainian S.S.R. Does anybody else have any com¬ment on this area?
Ms. MAZURKEVICH: It’s a very interesting idea, and we could probably use it for propaganda purposes if that’s what we wanted to do because I don’t think we’re going to achieve anything, but, you know, we could at least use this.
Dr. MACE: This could be handled informally through one of the congressional members of the Commission who will be going back and forth to the Soviet Union, and that can be handled on a private basis should the Commission decide to formulate a proposal at least in an exploratory form for them to say, “Well, we have this Commis¬sion. We would appreciate any help you might be able to give to us in carrying out our mandate in trying to figure out what happened in your Soviet Republic in 1932-33.”
Ms. MAZURKEVICH: We should present them with an official statement and an official request and see what the official answer will be just for the record.
Ms. VOLKER: I have a comment Now that there will be a consulate in Kiev, wouldn’t that facilitate our information channel, more or less?
Dr. MACE: Mr. Courtney would be quite willing to present any information of this nature. In fact, he has asked what he might be able to do in terms of, you know, com¬municating any of our proposals to Soviet-Ukrainian authorities because he will be the principal American official on the scene.
Mr. MARCHISHIN: Okay. Yes?
Mr. MAYNES: I was just going to raise the question of whether or not you might want to consider the Helsinki Commission. I don’t know if that’s stretching it, but that might be an avenue through which you could approach the Ukrainian authorities.