Officials of the Summa Corporation, Mr. Hughes's umbrella organization, have said privately that the reclusive billionaire received no remuneration for allowing the C.I.A. to place his imprimateur on the Hughes Glomar Explorer, the salvage ship that, disguised as a deepsea mining vessel, raised part of a Soviet submarine from the floor of the Pacific last summer.

There are, nevertheless, indications that Mr. Hughes may have reaped some long‐term rewards for his operation, and many of the other companies that have entered into commercial cover arrangements, according to the intelligence source, have received various forms of compensation in return. The source said that some had forced the C.I.A. to “pay through the teeth” for the use of their names.

The source gave this description of how the arrangement works:

To maintain their “cover,” the C.I.A. operatives working under such agreements must spend a certain portion of their time on legitimate business activities. In most instances, these activities produce income that is shared by the C.I.A. and the covering company.

The operative's salary is paid by the C.I.A., which also underwrites the expenses incurred if an overseas “business” office must be enlarged or opened to accommodate the agency's purposes. The company then benefits by gaining a corporate presence in an area where it otherwise would have none.

On some occasions, the source went on, companies having commercial cover agreements with the C.I.A. have attempted to take advantage of their special relationships by approaching the agency to seek some official favor from the Government. But he said that, to his knowledge, they had invariably been turned away.

The corporations involved in these relationships may benefit in yet another way. Although most agents operating under commercial cover allot the minimum time possible to corporate matters, the reverse is sometimes true.

Some clandestine agents, another intelligence source has said, have given the C.I.A. “a pain in the neck” and company sales an unexpected lift by spending “only 10 minutes a