Science: Weatherships Again?

The decision to take away U.S. support from the Atlantic weathership program (TIME, Nov. 2) brought howls of protest from participating European countries and angry mutterings from U.S. citizens, e.g., meteorologists and airmen, who make good use of the ships' weather analyses and mid-ocean radio beacons. Last week the State Department quietly admitted a national change of heart. In February, a U.S. delegation will go to the fourth North Atlantic Ocean Stations Conference in Paris. There, said a State Department announcement,"an exchange of views . . . will permit a determination as to whether, as seems likely, a continuation ... on a modified basis is the best means of satisfying all the interests involved."

State's reason for its new attitude: the strong protests from such transatlantic countries as Britain and Norway, who depend on the weatherships' data for their domestic forecasts far more than the U.S. does. U.S. expenditures for next year's program, however, will be a good deal less than the $17.5 million a year that has been paid in the past.