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BOC Sere Co SOG! RAPHIC INSTITUTION

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The Polar Regions

IN THEIR RELATION TO

Human Affairs

BY
LAURENCE M. GOULD

President of Carleton College

SERIES FOUR

THE AMERICAN GEOGRAPHICAL SOCIETY
NEW YORK - 1958

BOWMAN MEMORIAL LECTURES

Series One. Geography, Justice, and Politics at the Paris Conference of
1919. By Charles Seymour. 1951

Series Two. Agricultural Origins and Dispersals. By Carl O. Sauer. 1952

Series Three. Glacier Variations and Climatic Fluctuations. By H. W:son
Ahlmann. 1953

Copyright, 1958 by the

American Geographical Society

PRINTED BY THE JOHN B. WATKINS COMPANY, NEW YORK

Foreword

Virtually since its founding, in 1852, the American Geo-
graphical Society has held an interest in the exploration
of the Polar Regions. Some thirty years ago Isaiah Bowman,
speaking about these areas, remarked that “so much 1s now
known that the unknown ts rather closely localized.” The
large number of significant contributions to polar knowl-
edge published by the Society during Dr. Bowman’s direc-
torship bear witness to his keen interest and enthusiasm
in promoting a better understanding of the Arctic and the
Antarctic. He was a believer in scientific exploration, in
attacking the unknown by placing the known facts in the
forefront and confronting them with the problems. In his
foreword to the Society’s publication, “Problems of Polar
Research,’ Dr. Bowman commented that “a world confer-
ence on objectives in polar research seems eminently
desirable, and to supply an equivalent the present book has
been undertaken by the American Geographical Society.”
One can well imagine his wholehearted support of the
present international codperative research taking place in
the polar regions as part of the International Geophysical
Year.

It was therefore highly appropriate that at the mid-point
in the IGY, the fourth in the series of Isaiah Bowman
Memorial Lectures was delivered by Dr. Laurence M.
Gould, eminent geologist, geographer, and explorer in
both polar regions, at a dinner of the Society held on Janu-
ary 30,1958. Trained in the field of geology, Dr. Gould

lil

held a position on the University of Michigan staff at the
tume he served as second-in-command of the University’s
First Greenland Expedition, 1926. Later he returned to
the Arctic on several occasions for further work. He accom-
panied Admiral (then Commander) Byrd on his 1928-1930
expedition to Antarctica as geologist and senior scientist,
and again acted as second-in-command. In recognition of
his accomplishments in the field of Antarctic geology and
geography, he was awarded the David Livingstone Cen-
tenary Medal of the American Geographical Society in
1930, and in the following year was presented with a gold
medal by the Congress of the United States for his out-
standing contribution to knowledge. In 1945, Dr. Gould
became president of Carleton College in Northfield, Min-
nesota. But his duties as an educator have not deterred
him from his scientific interests. He serves as a member
of the National Science Board of the National Science
Foundation, and during the IGY has acted as chairman of
the Antarctic Committee of the United States National
Committee for the International Geophysical Year and
Director of the United States IGY Antarctic Program.

iv=—

The Polar Regions

TINT RAETR REEATHION TO

Human Affairs

EMBERS AND GUESTS of the American Geographical

Society, Iam honored by and grateful for the invita-
tion to give the Isaiah Bowman Lecture on a subject which
I am sure would have pleased Dr. Bowman. I am honored
because of my admiration for the American Geographical
Society and its achievements and grateful because of the
debt I owe to Isaiah Bowman for the unending stimulation
of a long and faithful friendship.

The north and south polar regions are distinguished by
their dissimilarities rather than by any common character-
istics; therefore they are best understood in terms of their
contrasts. Indeed, I can think of but one worthwhile gen-
eralization that applies to both, namely, that both will play
more and more important roles in human affairs as the
world becomes more crowded and man’s mobility increases.

Isaiah Bowman once said that the Arctic is a hollow and
the Antarctic a hump, referring to the oceanic character of
the Arctic and the continental character of the Antarctic.
Antarctica, the highest and coldest of all the continents, is
the world’s greatest desert and the only continent which
has never been the home of man, whereas the lands that
fringe the Arctic exhibit more than four hundred species
of flowering plants and a fauna which with the life of the
sea supports a sturdy native population.

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e IGY STATIONS

According to information received by the
General Secretary to March 24, 1957

North Polar Lands showing the limits of the Arctic Region (solid
line) and the Sub-Arctic Region (broken line). All proposed IGY
stations reported by the Secretary General as of March 24, 1957,
are shown. Participating nations in the North Polar Lands include:
Canada, Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, Poland, Sweden,

U.S.S.R., and the United States.

The North Polar Lands

OR THE PURPOSES OF THIS LECTURE, the Arctic and the
F North Polar Regions are not synonymous. The former
is too limited a concept, for it includes only a thin fringe of
the North American and Eurasian continents plus Green-
land and the islands of the Arctic Ocean. ‘This is a sparsely
inhabited region in which the seas are more productive
than the lands. I shall include both the Arctic and the sub-
Arctic within the term North Polar Lands. A. L. Wash-
burn’ defines the southern limit of the sub-Arctic as the
zone where the average temperature is not higher than
50° F. for more than four months, and where the average
temperature of the coldest month is below 32° F. While
the Arctic is largely a region of islands and water (see
Plate I at end) , the sub-Arctic bites off large continental
segments of Eurasia and North America.

The first aspect of any region that comes to mind in its
relationship to human affairs is its role in the trade and
commerce of the world. ‘The economic exploitation of the
northlands followed close on the heels of the earliest ex-
plorers who were in search of passages to India. ‘Their
voyages revealed an abundance of whales whose exploita-
tion established the northern seas as the major source of
whale oil for generations to come. Ruthless exploitation
— implemented by the development of whaling techniques
that included explosive missiles such as propelled shoulder
and dart guns — resulted in the rapid elimination of this
once rich source.

— 3 —

RENEWABLE RESOURCES

Even as the whalers plied the seas, hunters and trappers
were invading the lands to exploit the fur-bearing animals.
Much of the early explorations of the coastal and interior
regions resulted from the strenuous activities of the hunters
and trappers. ‘Though the renewable resources of the fur-
bearing animals have been greatly diminished, they still pro-
vide an important item in the economy of the northlands.

Fishing has long since replaced whaling as the major
harvest of north polar seas. All lands that border Arctic
and sub-Arctic waters depend upon fishing as an important
item in their economy. Norway is third in all the world in
the production of fish. Canada, the Soviet Union, Green-
land, and Iceland are important producers, and Alaska pro-
vides one-seventh of all the fish consumed in the United
States.

Agriculture is limited to a few areas, but is slowly creep-
ing northward. Part of this northward trend is due to the
development of new strains of crops more resistant to cold
and part may be due to a gradual warming of the climate.
Fields are being cultivated in Greenland today that the
Norsemen or their descendents cultivated five centuries ago.

‘Though grazing lands are limited, A. E. Porsild says the
physical basis for the reindeer industry is tremendous. He
states that the best lichen forest grazing areas would sup-
port sixteen reindeer per square mile. At best, however, if
the North Polar Lands are to play a much larger economic
role in the commerce of the world, it will be on some other
bases of northward movement and settlement than agricul-
ture and animal husbandry.

The greatest single renewable resource of the North

4

Polar Lands is undoubtedly the boreal forests. ‘The Soviet
Union leads the world in forest resources and Canada is
third. There is great potential for the development of
hydroelectric power which will be important in the exploi-
tation of these and other natural resources.

NONRENEWABLE RESOURCES

Even though only a modest beginning has been made in
the detailed geological mapping of the North Polar Lands,
they have long been important sources of a number of min-
erals. Gold was the first to be exploited on a large scale
and still remains by a large margin the most valuable min-
eral in production. The Soviet Union is crowding South
Africa for first place and Canada is third in the world pro-
duction of gold.

Important as gold is, it may eventually have to take sec-
ond place to uranium ores. ‘Two of the three largest known
deposits of fissionable ores in the whole world are in sub-
Arctic Canada.

Iron has been mined for a long time in the sub-Arctic
lands of Eurasia, and as the richer deposits in the lower
latitudes of North America are exploited, the pressure for
the development of more remote deposits increases. One
of the most spectacular iron ore deposits in the world is the
Burnt Creek area seven hundred miles northwest of the
city of Quebec. Exploitation began in 1954 with 417 mil-
lion tons of proven ore, averaging 49 per cent to 61 per cent
iron on a dry basis, with strong probabilities of greater re-
sources. Little wonder this deposit is called the Mesabi of
Canada.

In 1956, International Nickel Company of Canada, Ltd.,

5

announced the opening up of a vast new deposit of nickel-
iferous ore four hundred miles north of Winnipeg, which
will be in production in 1958. By that time this single en-
terprise will be supporting a settlement of 8000 people,
which according to the president of International Nickel
could grow into a community of 50,000 in the predictable
future. All this is happening in what only yesterday was a
vast sub-Arctic wilderness without roads or railroads.

While not as important as the metallic minerals noted
above, deposits of copper, lead, zinc, tungsten, platinum,
and tin have been or are being worked at a number of
places. Of the nonmetallic minerals, coal is known to occur
over wide areas of the North Polar Lands. It has been re-
ported from more than half the Canadian Arctic islands
and has long been mined in Spitsbergen and Greenland, as
well as on the mainlands of North America and Eurasia.
The petroleum industry has a future of much promise.
Nearly all Soviet northlands appear favorable for the devel-
opment of oil, and the gently folded rocks north of the
Brooks Range in Alaska are very promising. Much of this
part of Alaska has been held as a reserve by the United
States Navy since 1923.

The Soviet Union has pursued a much more aggressive
policy in the development of its northlands than has either
Canada or the United States and is undoubtedly far ahead
in number and size of settlements and general exploitation
of the natural resources.

On the whole, the polar lands of North America are
underdeveloped. Massive capital investments are necessary
but they appear to be forthcoming when new resources of
merit are opened up. The northward pressure of popula-
tion in itself will also hasten further developments. Eventu-

6

ally the peoples of the northlands will be drawn more and
more into world affairs from lower latitudes. It is unlikely
that the Eskimos and other native peoples will maintain
their identity indefinitely. We who have known these re-
markable peoples even slightly contemplate with profound
regret the eventuality that they will become casualties of
our advancing “civilization.”

Clearly the resources of the North Polar Lands are im-
portant and hold high promise for further development,
but the current role of the northlands in their relationship
to human affairs derives not so much from economic factors
as from their geographic location.

STRATEGIC CONSIDERATIONS

By the sheer logic of its position, the Arctic is destined to
become one of the great crossroads for air traffic on a global
scale. Most of the earth’s regions — indeed, those most
highly developed and, except for India and China, most
populous — he about the Arctic. Lloyd calls attention to
the fact that 90 per cent of the people live north of the
equator, that 10 of the world’s largest cities lie between the
Arctic Circle and the Tropic of Cancer, and that only 9 of
the world’s 41 cities with populations over a million lie out-
side this zone.” The greater part of the world’s oceanic
trafic has therefore been in the Northern Hemisphere.

The shortest route from San Francisco to Shanghai is not
across the Pacific but via Alaska, and the latter route is
2300 miles shorter. If you were to travel by conventional
routes on sea and land from San Francisco to Moscow,
which would be via Tokyo and Vladivostok, you would
cover 15,500 miles. If you flew over the Arctic, you would

7

need to cover about 10,000 fewer miles. Every capital of
Europe is as close to Chicago as is Buenos Aires.

‘The extensive searches for the Northeast and Northwest
passages which followed Columbus’ demonstration of a
New World failed, not because of any geographic miscon-
ceptions, but because their methods were inadequate. ‘The
ships of the air provide techniques of exploration not af-
forded by the ships of the sea. Mercator’s chart was suit-
able for the westward thrust of European civilization in the
eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, but presented a com-
pletely inadequate concept of the polar regions. We are
again forced to discover in our air age that the Mercator
chart in itself did not change the world — it is still round,
and there is no longer any limitation to the application of
this fact to the most effective means of transportation and
communication.

Lloyd points out that the recognition of the strategic im-
portance of the Arctic approach to Canada is not new.* One
of the early explorers of the Canadian Arctic mainland was
the Scotsman, Mackenzie. When Napoleon read his trav-
elogue almost 150 years ago, he gave Marshall Bernadotte
the job of attacking eastern Canada from the rear by way
of watercourses described by Mackenzie. For 150 years fol-
lowing the establishment of the Hudson’s Bay Company in
1670, western Canada was settled from the Arctic. Traders,
trappers, and the settlers came that way — even as far south
as the Red River that forms the boundary between Min-
nesota and North Dakota.

The first American to call attention to Arctic strategy
was Secretary Seward of Lincoln’s Cabinet, who sponsored
the purchase of Alaska in 1867 and who would also have
had us secure Iceland and Greenland by purchase from

8

Denmark as part of our ultimate national security. The
pathetic struggle of the late great General Mitchell to open
the eyes of his colleagues to the importance of Alaska is a
story too well known to need reiteration here. And of
course Stefansson, perhaps the greatest and most persistent
of all Arctic prophets, has been trying for nearly half a
century to educate us to an awareness of the impending
importance of the Arctic.

The Soviet Union was first to recognize the strategic im-
portance of the Arctic in our air age and first to attempt to
do something about it on a large scale, her extensive ex-
plorations and settlements being dominated primarily by
a sense of military strategy. But even the great Russian
trans-Arctic flights of 1947 failed to impress us. Not until
World War II was fairly upon us did either Canada or the
United States begin to take serious thought and action con-
cerning the Arctic regions. To secure the best coordinated
effort, the Permanent Joint Board on Defense was created
in August, 1940, to “consider in the broad sense the defense
of the northern half of the Western Hemisphere.”

Under the agreement each country is responsible for
bases in its own land except for United States bases in New-
foundland. The Board now involves strategic planning at
the highest levels in both countries, armament programs
with standardized specifications, joint weather programs,
and joint network of radar and other communication sys-
tems. Ihe most notable is the most recently completed
DEW (Distant Early Warning) line, which stretches from
Point Barrow, Alaska, three thousand miles eastward to
Baffin Island. It has been completed at a cost of six hundred
million dollars. Does not this sum suggest to you some-
thing of our official concept of the strategic importance of

9

the Arctic? The DEW line is backed up by the Mid-Canada
Defence Line and by the Pinetree Line on the U. S.-
Canadian border. In addition to these developments, the
United States and Canada have established experimental
stations on some of the great floating ice islands in the
Arctic.

NATO, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, is a
further reflection of the importance of this area, for it in-
cludes countries of the free world for which the North
Atlantic is an important thoroughfare.

‘There is much we do not know about Soviet activities
in the Arctic. Undoubtedly the Russians have not only
duplicated, but have far exceeded all that we have done.
We know that they have made hundreds of plane landings
on ice islands, which as early as 1937 they began using as
platforms for meteorological and other observations.

The late General Arnold, who commanded the United
States Army Air Force in World War II, said that if World
War III came, its strategic center would be the North Pole.
Few people even in his own service paid attention to him.
It took another courageous voice to call attention to our
vulnerability via Greenland, which led to the establish-
ment of the great air facility of Thule in north Greenland.
‘That was the voice of Colonel Bernt Balchen.

The strategic significance of the Arctic has increased as
civilization has progressed or developed. ‘The development
of guided missiles and other weapons but adds to it from a
military standpoint. It is tragic that the real possibilities
for economic development should be overshadowed and
obscured by the defense preparations I have described.
Granted peace, the economic strategic importance of the
northlands will exceed their military significance.

10

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Fig. 1 — NORTH POLAR REGION: RESEARCH AND DISCOVERY. An Aerobee
rocket carrying scientific instruments is launched at Fort Churchill, Canada.
(Photograph courtesy of U. $. National Committee for the International Geo-
physical Year.)

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The South Polar Lands

HILE THERE MAY BE some ambiguity about the term
W cota lands” as applied to the Arctic, there is none
in the Southern Hemisphere. The Antarctic Continent
lies almost wholly within the Antarctic Circle, which
roughly parallels the isotherm of 32° F. for the warmest
month.

There is no intimacy between Antarctica and other land
masses as there is between all of the other continents. You
might start at Cape Horn and travel to all the rest of the
continental lands never crossing more than sixty miles of
shallow seas, whereas most of the lands around Antarctica
are separated from it by as much as two thousand miles of
water. The narrowest oceanic area, Drake Passage, is more
than seven hundred miles wide.

However, what is generally regarded as the most notable
natural boundary relating to the totality of South Polar
conditions roughly parallels the isotherm of 50° F. for the
warmest month (the outer boundary of the Outer Polar
Belt). ‘This is the Antarctic Convergence, an unbroken
and rather sharply defined boundary around the continent
whose position shifts slightly from season to season. ‘The
Antarctic Convergence is caused by the fact that the cold
waters of the northward-moving Antarctic intermediate
current are denser than the sub-Antarctic waters and sink
sharply below them with but little mixing. Sea and air
temperatures, water analyses, the character of the plankton
and the sea birds, all reveal this boundary.

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PALMER PENINSULA
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, ANTARCTHUCA

us Pole of Inaccessibility. >
77
ro

The approximate location of the Antarctic Convergence, generally
regarded as the most acceptable boundary of South Polar condi-
tions, is shown by a solid line. IGY stations and facilities are shown
by solid dots. Participating nations in the Antarctic are Argentina,

Australia, Belgium, Chile, France, Japan, New Zealand, Norway,
South Africa, United Kingdom, United States and U.S.S.R.

South e
Magnetic South Geomagnetic
(S+Poz < % Ra

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La Np

SSS e Pionerskaya,

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Wilkes) wef
(Oazis”

ECONOMIC RESOURCES

The economic role which Antarctica plays in human
affairs is a simple one. Although the continent proper is a
great desert, the seas that surround it are notable for their
abundance of life. Whaling is currently the only exploita-
tion of this abundance, but it is an important industry
which accounts for eighty-five per cent of the world’s total
production of whale oil.

Of the nonrenewable or mineral resources, coal is present
in Antarctica in vast quantities. It is, however, low grade
lignite and not even in the predictable future can it be
regarded as an economic asset. The structure and geology
of the rocks in west Antarctica suggest the possibility of oil.
‘Traces of manganese, nickel, copper, and other ores have
been found, but at the present time we know of no com-
mercial deposits of any mineral whatsoever in Antarctica.
It is unwarranted to assume that there are great riches.
It is equally unwarranted to assume that there are none.
We just don’t know, for less than one per cent of the
continent has really been examined geologically.

SOVEREIGNTY PROBLEMS

One of Antarctica’s roles in human affairs is apt to center
around the question of its ownership. Seven nations have
claimed pie-shaped sectors: Great Britain, New Zealand,
Australia, Norway, Chile, Argentina, and France, leaving
unclaimed a sector from 150° to 90° W. — West Antarctica,
which includes Marie Byrd Land and which has been the
principal area of recent United States explorations before
the IGY.

These claims are based upon debatable evidence. The

13

ACCESSIBILITY OF ANTARCTIC COAST
{74 LIMIT OF PACK ICE PART OF THE YEAR
<cTTTTT «LIMIT OF PACK ICE IN ALL SEASONS

AT TIMES ACCESSIBLE TO UNREINFORCED

SURFACE VESSELS IN SOUTHERN SUMMER
INACCESSIBLE TO UNREINFORCED SURFACE
Cs VESSELS IN SOUTHERN SUMMER

(source: H.O.Pub, No. 705, 1957)

$00 1000 MILES.
50 1000 1800 KILOMETERS

0:

{Bouvet I.
(Nor)

pNe ZEALAND

Macquarie I.

Marion I.

“Pr. Edward |.
(S. Afr)

Political claims on the Antarctic Continent. All of these claims are
official so far as the claimant countries are concerned, but the
United States has never formally recognized foreign sovereignty
claims in the Antarctic, nor has the government itself made any
official claims to Antarctic territory (see text). Note the inaccesst-
bility to surface vessels of the coast of the unclaimed sector between
90° and 150° W.

British, Norwegian, and French claims are presumed to be
based on the right of discovery, yet Great Britain made its
first claim in 1908 — eighty-eight years after the supposed
discovery of the continent by Bransfield.

‘There has long been much difference of opinion between
British and American investigators as to who actually dis-
covered Antarctica. ‘The British are sure Bransfield made
the first continental landfall early in 1820. Americans
have generally believed that this landfall was an island and
that the first sighting of the continent was made by an
American sealing captain, Nathaniel Palmer, later in the
same year.

In 1952, E. A. Stackpole* called attention to a third can-
didate whose credentials I consider the best of all. He is
Christopher Burdick, a Nantucket sealing captain, who
sighted the continent on February 21, 1821, and recorded
with clarity and conviction the fact that his landfall was
part of a continent. The point in dispute between Brans-
field’s and Palmer’s supporters is in the same area as
Burdick’s landfall.

Recently the Russians have proposed another contender
— Admiral Fabian von Bellingshausen, who in the service
of Czar Alexander I circumnavigated the continent in
1820-1821. The charted route of his journey shows that he
came near enough to the continent to have seen it in the
African sector, but he makes no record of any landfall then.
In 1949, the All-Soviet Geographical Congress, after ex-
amining the data, concluded that von Bellingshausen had
actually discovered Antarctica in the area of the Palmer
Peninsula. Others who have examined the data are of the
unanimous opinion that the discovery in question is an
island and not the mainland of the continent.

15

In the American section of Antarctica three claimants
overlap 21° W.—Chile, Argentina, and Great Britain.
This has led to a good deal of friction and on February 2,
1952, the Argentine Navy actually fired on the British when
they attempted a landing at Hope Bay. Both Argentina
and Chile insist that the right of discovery is negligible and
that effective occupation is the only test.

One of the most spectacular lapsed claims is reflected in
the name of New Schwabia or New Schwabenland, which
is now a part of Norway’s Queen Maud Land. In 1938-
1939, Hitler determined to secure for Germany her share
in the approaching division of Antarctica among world
powers and thus create the basis for her rights to continue
and develop her whaling industry. A superbly equipped,
steel-clad ship penetrated the ice pack below South Africa
within fifty miles of the coast. Planes were catapaulted
from the ship, many flights were made, and three hundred
thousand square miles of territory were mapped. ‘This was
the first photogrammetric work in Antarctica. By way of
establishing claims, the planes dropped hundreds of steel
spear-pointed shafts, which plunged into the ice to remain
erect, and on the free end contained the Nazi symbol. And
by the way, how fast history moves in our time! It seems
incredible that it was just twenty-five years ago this very
day that Hitler came to power.

The United States official position was stated by Secre-
tary Hughes in 1924 as follows: “It is the opinion of this
department that the discovery of lands unknown to civili-
zation, even when coupled with formal taking of possession,
does not support a valid claim of sovereignty unless the
discovery is followed by actual settlement of discovered
country.” Our official position since then is that we reserve

16

all rights accruing from United States explorations and
discoveries without making any actual claims and that we
do not recognize the validity of claims made by other
nations.

United States interests in Antarctica may be said to have
begun in 1839-1840 when Admiral Wilkes voyaged more
than halfway around the continent and demonstrated the
reality of a continent by his landfalls in the Australian
quadrant. Then there was a great lapse both in official and
unofficial interest. Not until the First Byrd Antarctic Ex-
pedition of 1928-1930 did Americans again concern them-
selves with Antarctica. However, many American citizens
were long restless about our attitude toward political
claims, especially after Australia claimed about one-third
of the continent in 1933.

I know that a number of American citizens from time to
time recommended to the State Department that we take
a more aggressive position regarding our interest in Ant-
arctica than that embodied in the Hughes policy. This
concern finally filtered through to the very top, and in
1938, President Roosevelt asked Secretary Hull to prepare
a policy study as to what our interests in the polar regions
should be. Meanwhile, even before this study could be
completed, Secretary Hull directed Lincoln Ellsworth, who
was about to fly into the Antarctic in the sector claimed by
Australia, to drop a copper cylinder containing a note
claiming for the United States all inland territories within
one hundred and fifty miles of his route “‘so far as this act
allows.” I have not been able to find anyone who could
interpret just what is meant by the words quoted.

In January, 1939, the report requested by the President
was delivered and reversed the historic Hughes policy. In-

17

deed, this study quite emphatically stated that we did have
interests in the polar regions for the following reasons: the
impending importance of transpolar aviation; the impor-
tance of strategic location from a military standpoint; the
probability of rich mineral resources; the active political
interests in Antarctica expressed in claims; and concern
about potential claims by other countries. Hull’s recom-
mendations led to the almost immediate establishment of
the United States Antarctic Service in the Department of
the Interior. This was initiated on January 7, 1939.

That the President planned the establishment of a num-
ber of summer settlements to provide the basis for exten-
sive claims is now clear. What is now Queen Maud Land,
almost directly south of the Cape of Good Hope, was one
of the areas to be settled.

However, before the United States could take any action,
Norway published its claims to this area. At the same time
Hitler’s expedition to ‘““New Schwabia’’ was on its way to
claim a large part of this land. Though Norway did have
other reasons for making claims, it was probably this Ger-
man bid for sovereignty that precipitated Norway’s actions.
In 1929-1930, Captain Hyjalmar Ruiser-Larsen photo-
graphed from the air what is now Princess Martha Coast,
and there were further Norwegian explorations in this
region in 1930-1931 and in the years thereafter. ‘Che luc-
rative whaling industry has long been dominated by the
Norwegians and the coastal seas of this part of the continent
are of great importance to the industry, for the huge factory
ships not only operate near the pack ice, but occasionally
break through it toward the coast.

There was such a feeling of urgency stemming from the
rising power of Hitler and the approaching war that a

18

further proposal was made involving a possible joint claim
to the Antarctic lands south of us in behalf of all the Ameri-
can republics. The jurisdiction of the Monroe Doctrine
would thus have been pushed right down to the South Pole.
In 1940, Secretary Hull stated categorically that it was im-
perative for continental defense that the twenty-one Ameri-
can republics maintain a clearer title to the part of the
continent below the Americas than those of other nations.

The field operations of the United States Antarctic Serv-
ice resulted in the establishment of West Base near the site
of Little America and East Base on Stonington Island near
the base of Palmer Peninsula below South America in
1939. Explorations of the unknown lands of West Ant-
arctica were to be made from these two bases and partici-
pants were directed to leave records for the purposes of
“consolidating and extending United States sovereignty
over the largest practicable area of the Antarctic contin-
ent.” Much good work was done, but what the completion
of the explorations might have accomplished in claims and
“settlements” can now be only a matter of speculation,
since World War II ended the United States Antarctic
Service for all practical purposes.

‘The end of World War II, its eventual replacement by
the cold war, and the emergence of the Soviet Union as an
opponent rather than an ally brought the military strategic
importance of the Arctic into sharp focus. It was expedient _
that our military personnel should have actual experience
in cold weather operation. Because of the Soviet Union’s
proximity to the Arctic, Operation Highjump was organ-
ized for Antarctica under the United States Navy in 1946.
This was the largest exploratory venture in Antarctic his-
tory up to that time and resulted in the exploration of

19

many hitherto unknown areas with extensive aerial photo-
graphic coverage. Operation Highjump was followed in
1947 by Operation Windmill, which operated under in-
structions similar to those of Highjump, though on a
smaller scale. Both operations carried directives (only
recently declassified) to extend and consolidate United
States sovereignty.

Operation Deepfreeze I, which headed south in 1955 to
begin the establishment of bases for the International Geo-
physical Year, was directed to continue the political activi-
ties of Highjump and Windmill, reflecting the continuing
United States “official” political interest in Antarctica.
Since this was inconsistent with the world-wide agreement
that there should be no political activities in connection
with the International Geophysical Year, all reference to
any political activity of any sort was dropped from the
directive of Operation Deepfreeze II for 1956-1957. This
operation was directed to support the IGY only.

STRATEGIC CONSIDERATIONS

If there is any part of Antarctica that has particular mill-
tary importance, it is the Palmer Peninsula. The only
natural link between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans is
Drake Passage, between Cape Horn and the Palmer Penin-
sula. Should the Panama Canal be knocked out of com-
mission, this might become a waterway of very great
importance to us.

Asa matter of fact, as early as 1820 Great Britain believed
this waterway so significant that it directed Captain Brans-
field to investigate the possibilities for colonization of the
land south of the passage and to establish friendly relations

20

with the natives. This would have been a difficult task, for
the largest native land animal in Antarctica is a wingless
mosquito, and very few of these have been reported. Cer-
tainly it was the belief in the strategic importance of the
Palmer Peninsula and Drake Passage that led to Secretary
Hull’s proposal in 1940.

Except for Drake Passage, the oceanic waters that sur-
round Antarctica are of such breadth that they do not carry
specific names. Indeed, the Atlantic, the Pacific, and the
Indian oceans merge into a great belt of such proportions
that the whole is sometimes called the “Antarctic Ocean.”

Except for South America, the lands that lie north of
Antarctica are around two thousand miles away. However,
there still may be certain strategic advantage in the pos-
session of parts of the continent below New Zealand,
Australia, and Africa. Great powers with vast resources
beyond any possessed by the lands noted above could con-
ceivably command these waterways with modern aircraft
and guided missiles. However, even for the richest coun-
tries, the cost of establishing and maintaining such stations
would be fantastic.

‘The presence of Soviet IGY bases in the sector claimed
by Australia has caused much apprehension in that coun-
try, which has erupted into vigorous editorial protest with
the announcement that the Soviet Union proposes to main-
tain some of its bases after the official expiration of IGY on |
December 31, 1958. Yet this decision on the part of the
Soviet Union merely coincided with that which was rec-
ommended by the United States and is now concurred in
by the twelve nations participating in the current IGY
Antarctic programs.

During World War II German raiders operated from

Zl

sub-Antarctic waters with an effectiveness that was devas-
tating, sinking or capturing several hundred thousand tons
of shipping. Indeed, the first United States vessel to be
sunk in the war — the City of Bayville — was a victim of
German mines laid in Australian waters. One cannot dis-
miss the fact that an unfriendly power today with long-
range submarine fleets might find sub-Antarctic waters a
safe place from which to operate.

Clearly the Antarctic does not now nor can it ever possess
the strategic military position which the Arctic will always
have. Even if the empty areas of South America, Africa,
and Australia be filled, the population will always be small
as compared with that of the Northern Hemisphere or the
circum-Arctic. Of course, there will one day be trans-
Antarctic air routes but not on a scale with those that cross
the Arctic.

One might well ask why there should be so much con-
cern on the part of so many nations about maintaining
claims in Antarctica. Clearly there is no present and no
probable immediate future for the exploitation of mineral
resources. Only on the basis of the laws of probability may
we even assume that such deposits will one day be dis-
covered. However, such long chances seem to be one of the
major reasons for great interest in the ownership of this
bleak continent. But, even granting actual discoveries, the
exploitation of minerals in this inhospitable continent
would raise problems far more serious than those encoun-
tered in the exploitation of the Arctic’s mineral resources.

Of course, one of the chief reasons for Antarctic claims
is the competitive element itself. No one wants to be left
out whether such claims ever amount to anything or not.
The possession of Antarctic claims means “‘a place in the

22

sun” for such countries as Argentina and Chile. Neither
Chile nor Argentina has been willing to submit to arbitra-
tion of its claims as opposed to those of Great Britain by
any agency, international or otherwise.

Antarctica in the IGY

COME TOWARD THE END of this address and conclude
I with what seems to me the most important role Antarc-
tica has ever played in human affairs and one which I trust
it will play for a long time. I refer to the International
Geophysical Year. As you may know, the overall Interna-
tional Geophysical Year program blankets the earth with
several thousand stations manned by scientists from sixty-
six different nations. Ihe program includes the study of
the shape and structure of the earth, more precise meas-
urements of longitude and latitude, the study of the earth’s
heat and water budget (meteorology, oceanography, glaci-
ology), and the physics and chemistry of the upper air,
even to outer space.

This is the most comprehensive scientific program ever
undertaken by man. It is the first attempt at a total study
of his environment. Every one of the geophysical sciences
is global in character, by which I mean that data collected
in any one part of the earth have relevance throughout the
rest. None can be fully explored or understood on a pro-
vincial basis. Antarctica as the earth’s last great empty
quarter was destined to play a major role in such a univer-
sal program. No field of geophysics can be understood 01
complete without specific data available only from this vast
continent and its surrounding oceans.

The geophysical sciences touch all of man’s major activi-
ties. Such fields as agriculture, transportation, and com-
munication of all sorts are inseparably involved in them.

24

Indeed, human progress from a long-range point of view
and man’s eventual survival on this planet depend upon an
increasingly better knowledge of his environment.

I shall not take your time to go into details about the
various aspects of the IGY program in Antarctica. ‘There
are a few special high spots, however, that I think would
interest you particularly. I suppose of all aspects of man’s
environment the one that touches everyone most is meteor-
ology, the study of the earth’s weather. Blanketing our
earth in a closed system is the atmosphere that provides us
with life-giving oxygen and water and also protects us from
the lethal rays of the sun. Surprisingly little is known about
the exchange of the air masses between the polar regions
and the tropics. The vast Antarctic ice cap, which is large
enough to cover the United States and Europe combined,
has long been suspected of having a profound effect on
weather and climate. The air over Antarctica today may
be over Chile tomorrow. Certainly the hub of the atmos-
pheric circulation of the Southern Hemisphere is located
on Antarctica and just as certainly it is the world’s greatest
factory for cold weather.

We are now achieving coordinated observations from
many stations in and around Antarctica which may provide
a major breakthrough in our understanding of the role
played in weather and climate by this vast, ice-covered con-
tinent. I predict that this role will be so important that it
will dramatize the urgency of providing the continuous
flow of data necessary for the construction of world-wide
weather maps through the maintenance of Antarctic
weather stations. Such maps are becoming indispensable
with man’s increased speed and global flights, which
are surely coming with jet transportation.

2

To the casual observer the vast Antarctic ice cap itself
may appear to be of only technical or scientific interest;
this is not true. Inasmuch as nearly ninety per cent of all
of the land ice in the world lies in Antarctica, changes in
the volume and thickness of the ice are matters of universal
concern. The return of only a few feet of thickness of ice
to the oceans by melting would have serious effects in many
places. If all of the ice melted into the sea, its level would
rise perhaps two or three hundred feet, submerging all of
the world’s densely populated coastal lowlands and all of
its seaports. Great changes in the volume of Antarctic ice
have taken place in the past and may recur. ‘That such
changes may not happen with catastrophic suddenness
does not mean that they are not of practical concern to man
if he expects the earth to support his progeny for thousands
of years.

Borings are being made into the Antarctic ice right now
which will be studied in great detail. ‘They may reveal
layers that will show us the succession of stages involved in
the formation of the ice. They may give us much more
accurate clues to climate of the past centuries than are to
be derived in any other way. Similar observations might
be made about the peculiar importance of cosmic rays,
ionospheric physics, aurora and airglow, geomagnetism,
and seismology in Antarctica. There is not time to give
you details about these.

Currently the IGY program in Antarctica is imple-
mented by forty-eight stations established by twelve coun-
tries. The United States has six major scientific stations
in addition to its great central logistic naval facility at
McMurdo Sound. One of these stations at Cape Hallett is
operated jointly with New Zealand.

26

The establishment of two of the stations warrants par-
ticular mention here. They are the Amundsen-Scott Sta-
tion at the South Pole and Byrd Station, which lies six
hundred and forty-seven miles southwest of Little America.
The successful establishment of these two stations by Op-
eration Deepfreeze II under Admiral Dufek’s command
was one of the great logistic achievements in the long his-
tory of polar exploration.

The establishment of the South Pole Station was accom-
plished by air dropping materials from the great Air Force
Globemasters. Some eight hundred tons of materials were
dropped for the establishment of the station, including a
14,000-pound tractor. Only the personnel and limited
amounts of equipment were flown in and landed by ski-
equipped planes.

The techniques used in establishing Byrd Station were
equally impressive. Globemaster air drops were also im-
portant here, but the main mission was carried out by great
tractor train operations, which included crossing a danger-
ously crevassed area more than seven miles in width. It
took five weeks for the special Army Transportation Corps
teamed with Navy personnel to “bridge” this crevassed
zone and establish a well-marked route.

Of the other nations in the Antarctic operations, the
Soviet Union has the most ambitious program next to ours.
Their main base at Mirny is the largest and best-equipped —
station in Antarctica. On December 16, 1957, they estab-
lished a second major base at the South Geomagnetic Pole
and they still hope to establish a station at the so-called
“pole of inaccessibility” or the geographic center of the
continent, approximately four hundred miles from the
South Pole at longitude 63° E. In addition to these main

Zod

stations, the Soviets have established a minor one called
Oasis in the Bunger Hills midway between Mirny and our
American base, Wilkes, on the Knox Coast.

The United Kingdom has a total of sixteen stations,
eleven of which lie within the Falkland Islands Depend-
encies on or near Palmer Peninsula. ‘They were established
before the IGY, but have been enlarged to include its pro-
gram. ‘The main new IGY base was established by the
Royal Society near the head of Weddell Sea.

Argentina operates ten stations, six of which are on the
Palmer Peninsula. It has a major base at the head of
Weddell Sea, which was established in 1955. Australia es-
tablished its major station at 60° 36’ S., 62° 54’ E. in 1954
and named it for the most distinguished Antarctic explorer,
Sir Douglas Mawson. ‘This was later enlarged to include the
IGY program and early in 1957 an auxiliary station was
established some three hundred miles west of Mawson.
Belgium has recently established a station at Breid Bay,
TO® BO" Sy etal 295 (OW 18,

Chile’s six long-time meteorological stations in the
Palmer Peninsula area are carrying on IGY programs, as
are her three sub-Antarctic stations. France established a
main station on the coast of Adélie Land and a small auxil-
iary one three hundred miles inland. In January, 1957,
Japan established Showa Station at 69° 02’ S., 39° 36’ E. In
addition to the station cooperatively maintained with the
United States, New Zealand has a major base, Scott Station,
located on Pram Point about two miles from the United
States’ installation at McMurdo Sound.

In January, 1957, Norway established its IGY station at
70° 30’ S., 2° 32’ W. This is really a re-establishment of the
international station which had operated there in 1948-

28

1950. The Union of South Africa reactivated its station on
Marion Island in 1955-1956 as a part of the IGY.

Naturally as the IGY draws toward its close on Decem-
ber 31, 1958, those of us who have been involved in the
program are concerned about its continuation. We are
sure now as I speak that there will be such continuity. It
is apparent to anyone that the value of scientific data being
gathered by IGY is cumulative. The longer continuous
observations can be maintained, the greater is the value to
any part of our accumulated knowledge, as well as to the
whole. Dr. Harry Wexler, who is chief of the research
activities of the United States Weather Bureau, estimates
that a ten-year minimum of continuous observations is
necessary to get a comprehensive understanding of Antarc-
tic weather and climate and the effect it has throughout
the rest of the world.

I believe that the major exports of Antarctica are scien-
tific data. Certainly that is true now and I think it will be
true for a long time and I think these data may turn out to
be of vastly more value to all mankind than all of the
mineral riches of the continent and the life of the seas that
surround it.

On September 9, 1957, an ad hoc committee on post-IGY
activities in Antarctica met in Stockholm. There were rep-
resentatives from Argentina, Chile, France, Great Britain, —
Norway, Japan, the Soviet Union, and the United States.
This committee recommended to its parent ICSU (Inter-
national Council of Scientific Unions) that plans should
be carried out for a continuing cooperative scientific pro-
eram in Antarctica. Toward this end ICSU invited par-
ticipating nations to name representatives for the creation
of a Special Committee on Antarctic Research (SCAR).

29

This committee is meeting on February 3-6 in The Hague.
As the United States representative I shall be flying over
there to participate in what to me is an important historic
activity. Iam sure that the result will be the recommenda-
tion of a program that will not only continue IGY scientific
activities, but will also embrace other important scientific
aspects of Antarctic research as well. For instance, as a
geologist I must insist that geology shall be a part of all
programs at all stations where geological phenomena are
accessible. Furthermore, it is of fundamental importance
that a coordinated, comprehensive mapping program be
carried out. Maps and charts are indispensable tools to
almost all of the other scientific activities in Antarctica.

THE UNITED STATES AND ANTARCTICA IN THE FUTURE

Of course, no account of Antarctica would be complete
without some further comment about the future political
attitude of the United States.

You will have noted that Britain, Argentina, and Chile
claim the most attractive part of Antarctica, Palmer Penin-
sula. ‘This is the part of Antarctica which we believe was
discovered by an American. The United States could re-
view Secretary Hull’s proposal to invoke the Monroe Doc-
trine to include all lands to the South Pole, but I doubt if
such a proposal would be acceptable to any of the present
claimant nations.

Shall the United States officially declare its sovereignty
over the unclaimed section between longitudes 90° W. and
150° W.? ‘To limit our authority by the 90th meridian, the
boundary of Chilean claims, might be interpreted by the
British as an endorsement of the Chilean position, but to

30

extend it beyond to the 80th meridian, where Britain ends
her claim would be viewed by Chile as sheer trespass and
would undoubtedly bring forth vigorous protest.

Probably all of the present claimant nations in Antarc-
tica tacitly accept the United States’ right to the area be-
tween longitudes 90° W. and 150° W., that is, Marie Byrd
Land and Ellsworth Land. That is, however, the most in-
accessible part of Antarctica. Repeated attempts made by
our ships to penetrate the dense pack ice that hugs the
coast of Marie Byrd Land have resulted in only one ship
being partially successful and that apparently was due to
the fact that it was a freakishly warm summer.

Currently our only access to Marie Byrd Land is by land
over the Ross Dependency, an area claimed by New Zea-
land. Furthermore, the only known land area on rock
which could be used as a base for an air strip is also in the
Ross Dependency, near our McMurdo Sound naval instal-
lation. We know from recent surveys that this area near
Marble Point could be used for the establishment of a
permanent year-round landing strip.

A joint claim by the United States and New Zealand
would have merit and might be advantageous to both.
Antarctic exploration is costly, and New Zealand, with a
population about equal to my own state of Minnesota, does
not have the resources to build and maintain far-flung
Antarctic bases. I should guess that New Zealand is cur-
rently making a greater per capita investment in Antarctica
than is any other nation. A further suggestion is that
Australia, New Zealand, and the United States join in a
common claim that would include almost two-thirds of
the continent.

I have but recently received a letter from Sir Douglas

31

Mawson, commenting upon the question of claims and I
am sure he would not mind if I quoted a paragraph from
Inisiletten:

“I am still sorry that America has not laid territorial
claim to the big unclaimed central Pacific sector. There
would be no difficulty with New Zealand, I am sure, having
it extended into the Ross Ice Shelf. No doubt also terri-
torial adjustments could be made elsewhere. What seems
to me important in such a move is that the Antarctica ice
continent if tied up to a limited number of sovereignties
of good repute and mutual regard could then be admin-
istered on good lines conjointly for the benefit of all and
especially of the inhabitants (penguins, birds, seals, etc.).
If every nation had a hand in it, some of the life there may
soon become extinct.”

Hindsight is inevitably clearer than any other kind of
sight. ‘The United States, at the time of Hughes’ historic
policy, could probably have claimed without much, if any,
protest more than half the continent, on the basis of the
discoveries of Palmer and Burdick, and more especially on
what has only recently been recognized as the brilliant
achievements of Wilkes in 1839-1840. Such a claim now
would certainly produce “comment,” to say the least.

‘The Soviet Union has made it clear that she will not
recognize any realignment of claims to which she is not a
party, though she has made no Antarctic claims herself.
Whether the Russians would accept any of the approaches
suggested above is an open question. It might, indeed,
stimulate them to make claims based on von Bellings-
hausen’s supposed discoveries.

Nehru of India proposed that the whole matter of Ant-
arctic claims be discussed by the United Nations General

32

Assembly. It has not yet gotten on the agenda. In the long
run it is difficult to see how face-saving, especially impor-
tant to the nations with overlapping claims, can be ac-
complished other than by some form of international
jurisdiction.

Those of us who have been deeply involved in the Inter-
national Geophysical Year fervently hope that the experi-
ences of cooperation there will point the way toward a
satisfactory solution. Since the geophysicist is inevitably a
truly international scientist, the IGY may turn out to be a
brilliant new approach toward international understand-
ing and organization. The current Antarctic operations
have been marked by the friendliest kind of cooperation
from all of the nations involved. ‘The work has proceeded
without even a discussion of political claims. ‘The location
of the various bases was agreed upon at an international
conference in Paris in July, 1955. ‘The principal criterion
was provision for the best scientific coverage. Our own
American stations are located in areas currently claimed by
Great Britain, Australia, New Zealand, Argentina, and in
the still unclaimed sector between 90° W. and 150° W., and
our South Pole Station occupies territory common to all
claimants. Great Britain, France, Argentina, Chile, and
Norway have their bases on land claimed by the respective
nations, but the Russians are located within the sector
claimed by Australia. |

We do believe that precedents are important in the evo-
lution of civilization. The successful cooperation of the
IGY in Antarctica and the expectation of a continuing
international cooperative program in that vast continent
may provide a pattern that will move over into other areas
and result in further working together of all nations.

33

POSTSCRIPTS

SCAR (Special Committee on Antarctic Research) was
officially organized as a permanent committee of ICSU at
The Hague meeting noted above. The committee is in
process of preparing a long-range program of Antarctic re-
search which will be broader in coverage than IGY and in
which it is expected all participants in the current IGY
program will share.

Shortly after the delivery of this address the United
Kingdom stated a position favoring the solution of Antarc-
tic claims on some kind of international basis. Premier
Nash of New Zealand later announced his country’s con-
currence with this position. Dr. Somov, Russian Antarctic
leader, is quoted in a newspaper account as saying he did
not see how the Antarctic situation could be resolved except
on some kind of international basis.

FOOTNOTES

1. A. L. Washburn: Geography and Arctic Lands, in Griffith Taylor, edit.:
Geography in the Twentieth Century, New York, 1951, pp. 267-287; see
especially pp. 269-271.

2. Trevor Lloyd: Frontier of Destiny — The Canadian Arctic, Behind the Head-
lines, Vol. 6, No. 7, 1946, 16 pp.

3. Idem: The New North, Canadian Affairs, Vol. 1, 1944, pp. 1-16.

4. E. A. Stackpole: The First Recognition of Antarctica, Boston Public Library
Quarterly, Vol. 4, 1952, pp. 3-19; or see Chapter 25 of idem: The Sea-Hunters,
New York, 1953.

SELECTED GENERAL REFERENCES

1. Antarctica in the International Geophysical Year, Geophys. Monogr. No. 1,
Amer. Geophys. Union Publ. No. 462, Nat’l. Acad. Sci., Washington, D. C.,
1956.

2. Laurence M. Gould: Antarctic Prospect, Geogr. Rev., Vol. 47, 1957, pp. 1-28.
3. Idem: Antarctica in World Affairs, Foreign Policy Assn. Headline Ser. No. 128,
New York, 1958.

4. G. H. T. Kimble and Dorothy Good, edit.: Geography of the Northlands, |
Amer. Geogr. Soc. Special Publ. No. 32, New York, 1955.

5. John H. Roscoe: Exploring Antarctica Vicariously: A Survey of Recent Litera-
ture, Geogr. Rev., Vol. 48, 1958, pp. 406-427.

6. F. A. Simpson, edit.: The Antarctic Today, New Zealand Antarctic Society,
Wellington, 1952.

7. Walter Sullivan: Antarctica in a Two-Power World, Foreign Affairs, Vol. 36,
1957, pp. 154-166.

8. Idem: Quest for a Continent, New York, 1957.

Oh rare:

Appendix: Sovereignty in Antarctica

ARGENTINA |

Area of Claim. 74° W. to 25° W.

Date of Claim. None

Remarks. The Argentine Government has not made a formal declara-
tion of claims to Antarctic territory because it regards the ‘“‘Argentine
Antarctic” as an area which has belonged to the republic since its founda-
tion. The Argentine claim is included within the area claimed by the
United Kingdom, and from 70° W. to 53° W. overlaps the Chilean claim.
On July 12, 1947, the foreign ministers of Argentina and Chile issued a
joint declaration indicating their “desire to arrive as soon as possible at
the conclusion of a Treaty between Argentina and Chile, regarding the
demarcation of boundaries in the South American Antarctic.” No such
treaty has as yet been concluded. Considerable diplomatic correspondence
has also accrued between the Governments of Argentina and the United
Kingdom with the issue of the Antarctic being complicated by its connec-
tion with an older dispute over the sovereignty of the Falkland Islands.

Relevant Documents. Excerpt from a note addressed to the British
Ambassador in Buenos Aires by the Argentine Minister for Foreign Affairs
and Worship, 27 February 1952.

In paragraphs 5 and 6 of your excellency’s Note No. 31, reference is made to
the embassy’s Note No. 180 of 30 April 1951; and details are once more given of
the titles on which Her Majesty’s Government consider their rights in Antarctica
to be based. ‘The above-mentioned Note was answered by this ministry in their
Note No. 876 of 1 July 1951, and the supposed rights of the United Kingdom
were the subject of this and earlier communications. I now repeat the views set
forth in these communications and reaffirm once again the unquestionable rights
of the Argentine Republic to sovereignty over the Falkland Islands, South
Georgia, the South Sandwich Islands and the antarctic sector bounded by longs.
25° and 74° W., south of lat. 60° S.

AUSTRALIA

Area of Claim. 45° E. to 136° E. and 142° E. to 160° E.

Date of Claim. 1936

Remarks. Although Australia had been active in British expeditions to
the Antarctic even before the foundation of the Commonwealth (1908)
and Sir Douglas Mawson led an Australasian (1911-14) and later a com-
bined British-Australian-New Zealand expedition (1929-31) to the con-
tinent, Australia put forward no formal claim until 1933. In that year an
Order in Council transferred the area of the present Australian claim to
the Commonwealth Government contingent upon acceptance by the

36

Commonwealth Parliament. The necessary legislation was passed and
assented to on 13 June of the same year. The Acceptance Act went into
effect when issued as a proclamation by the Governor-General on 12
August 1936.

Relevant documents are as follows:

ORDER IN COUNCIL, February 7, 1933
At the Court at Sandringham, the 7th day of February, 1933

PRESENT

The KING’s Most Excellent Majesty

Lord President

Earl Stanhope

Mr. Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster

Whereas that part of the territory in the Antarctic Seas which comprises all
the islands and territories other than Adelie Land situated south of the 60th de-
gree of South Latitude and lying between the 160th degree of East Longitude and
the 45th degree of East Longitude is territory over which His Majesty has sov-
ereign rights;

And whereas by the Commonwealth of Australia Constitution Act, it is pro-
vided that the Parliament of the Commonwealth of Australia may make laws for
the government of any territory placed by the King under the authority of and
accepted by the Commonwealth:

And whereas it is expedient that the said territory in the Antarctic Seas
should be placed under the authority of the Commonwealth of Australia:

Now, therefore, His Majesty, by virtue and in exercise of the power in that
behalf in His Majesty vested, is pleased, by and with the advice of His Privy
Council, to order, and it is hereby ordered, as follows:

1. That part of His Majesty’s dominions in the Antarctic Seas which com-
prises all the islands and territories other than Adelie Land which are situated
south of the 60th degree of South Latitude and lying between the 160th degree
of East Longitude and the 45th degree of East Longitude is hereby placed under
the authority of the Commonwealth of Australia.

2. This Order shall come into operation on such date, after legislation shall
have been passed by the Parliament of the Commonwealth of Australia providing
for the acceptance of the said territory and the government thereof, as may be
fixed by Proclamation by the Governor-General of the Commonwealth of ©
Australia.

M. P. A. HANKEY

AUSTRALIAN ANTARCTIC TERRITORY ACCEPTANCE ACT 1933.
* * *
No. 8 of 1933.

An Act to provide for the acceptance of certain territory in the Antarctic
Seas as a Territory under the authority of the Commonwealth and for the Gov-
ernment thereof.

(Assented to 13 June, 1933.)

Be it enacted by the King’s Most Excellent Majesty, the Senate, and the
House of Representatives of the Commonwealth of Australia, as follows:

ACCEPTANCE OF THE TERRITORY.

1. This Act may be cited as the Australian Antarctic Territory Acceptance
Act 1933.

2. That part of the territory in the Antarctic seas which comprises all the
islands and territories, other than Adelie Land, situated south of the 60th degree
south latitude and lying between the 160th degree east longitude and the 45th
degree east longitude, is hereby declared to be accepted by the Commonwealth
as a Territory under the authority of the Commonwealth, by the name of the
Australian Antarctic Territory.

ORDINANCES.
3. (1) The Governor-General may make Ordinances having the force of law
in and in relation to the Territory.

(2) Every such Ordinance shall —

(a) be notified in the Gazette;

(b) take effect from the date of notification, or from such date,
whether before or after such date of notification, as is specified in
the Ordinance; and

(c) be laid before both Houses of the Parliament within thirty days
of the making thereof, or, if the Parliament is not then sitting,
within thirty days after the next meeting of the Parliament.

(3) If either House of the Parliament passes a resolution, of which notice
has been given at any time within fifteen sitting days after such Ordinance has
been laid before the House, disallowing the Ordinance, the Ordinance shall
thereupon cease to have effect.

BELGIUM

Area of Claim. None

Date of Claim. None

Remarks. Although Belgium has not put forward a claim to any Ant-
arctic territory, the Belgian Government has indicated that, on the basis
of the discoveries of the 1897-99 expedition, it would expect to be included
in any international discussions about the future political status of
Antarctica.

BRITISH COMMONWEALTH

Area of Claim. General claims outside Falkland Islands and
Ross Dependencies

Date of Claim. 1926

Remarks. At the Imperial Conference of 1926, the representatives of
the Commonwealth Governments discussed Antarctic exploration and
British rights in the area, except for the Falkland Islands Dependencies

38

and the Ross Dependency. In British eyes, the status of the former had
been fixed by letters patent of 1908 and 1917 and of the latter by the Order
in Council of July 30, 1923. The areas discussed were along the coast
between 20° W. and 160° E., the bulk of them in the present Australian
claim; some, to which the British have apparently relinquished their rights,
are in the Norwegian claim. The alleged titles were based upon prior
discovery.

Relevant documents. Excerpt from Imperial Conference, 1926: Sum-
mary of Proceedings.

The official summary of the proceedings of the British Imperial Conference
of 1926 contains the following list of areas in the Antarctic “to which a British
title already exists by virtue of discovery:

“(i.) The outlying part of Coats Land, viz., the portion not comprised within
the Falkland Islands Dependencies.

(ii.) Enderby Land.

(iii.) Kemp Land.

(iv.) Queen Mary Land.

(v.) The area which lies to the west of Adelie Land and which on its discov-
ery by the Australian Antarctic Expedition in 1912 was denominated Wilkes
Land.

(vi.) King George V Land.

(vii.) Oates Land.”

CHILE

Area of Claim. 90° W. to 53° W.

Date of Claim. 1940

Remarks. The Chilean claim was put forward as the result of a study
of Chilean rights in the Antarctic authorized by the Government in 1939.
Chile recognizes the sector principle and its claim, therefore, runs to the
South Pole. East of 80° W., the Chilean claim overlaps that of the United
Kingdom, and east of 74° W. that of Argentina as well. On July 12, 1947,
the foreign ministers of Argentina and Chile issued a joint declaration of
their “desire to arrive as soon as possible at the conclusion of a Treaty
between Argentina and Chile, regarding the demarcation of boundaries.
in the South American Antarctic.” No such treaty has as yet been con-
cluded.

Relevant documents.

CHILEAN DECREE No. 1747 OF 6 NOVEMBER 1940
WHEREAS:
It is the duty of the State, to fix, with exactitude, its territorial limits;
Up to the present the Chilean territorial limits in the Southern Polar region
known as the American Antarctic have not been determined;
The Ministry for Foreign Affairs publicly declared in 1906 that the delimita-

oe) ————=

tion of the territory referred to was the subject of preliminary investigations
which had not yet been completed;

The actual state of these investigations now enables a decision to be reached
in this respect;

The special commission appointed by the Ministry for Foreign Affairs’ decree
No. 1541 of the 7th September, 1939, have established the limits of Chilean Ant-
arctic territory in accordance with the data supplied by geographical, historical,
juridical and diplomatic precedents which have been consulted and which have
accumulated up to the present time;

I decree:

All lands, islands, islets, reefs of rocks, glaciers, already known or to be dis-
covered, and their respective territorial waters, in the sector between longitudes
53° and 90° West, constitute the Chilean Antarctic or Chilean Antarctic territory.

Take note, communicate, publish and insert in the Bulletin of Laws and
Decrees of the Government.

PEDRO AGUIRRE CERDA.
MarciAL Mora M.

FRANCE

Area of Claim. 136° E. to 142° E.

Date of Claim. 1924

Remarks. Although for more than a century after the initial discovery
in 1840 no further voyages were made to the continental area eventually
claimed, the French continued to maintain their interest in Antarctica.
France also claims several sub-Antarctic islands, including Saint-Paul,
Amsterdam, Kerguelen, and Crozet. A decree of November 21, 1924,
placed these islands and Adelie Land under the administration of the
governor general of Madagascar. The original area of Adelie Land was
defined as the territory lying between 136° E. and 142° E. and 66° S. and
67° S. A second decree of April 1, 1938, enlarged this territory to include
all land included in a pie-shaped sector running to the South Pole.

Relevant documents.

MINISTRY OF COLONIES
REPORT
TO THE PRESIDENT OF THE FRENCH REPUBLIC

Paris, 21 November 1924

Mr. President:

I have the honor to submit for your high consideration a draft of a decree
attaching administratively the Saint-Paul and Amsterdam Islands, the Kerguelen
and Crozet Archipelagoes, and Adelie Land to the government general of
Madagascar.

These faraway parts of our colonial domain have not been up to now the
object of any permanent administrative organization. In the ignorance in which
we were for a long time concerning the economic value of these uninhabited

40 ———_

lands, situated apart from the great maritime routes, it did not, in fact, seem at
all indispensable to confirm by the establishment of effective authority the rights
of sovereignty which, from a distant date, France had acquired over the archi-
pelagoes and over the parts of the Antarctic continent discovered by our
navigators.

The scientific missions carried out at the beginning of this century in the
southern seas have established that these long-neglected dependencies of our
overseas domain could offer to the large-scale fishing industry some extremely
precious resources: whales, seals, and sea elephants are in reality very abundant
in these latitudes, and the great industrial value of the products derived from
these animal species did not take long to inspire the creation of fishing and hunt-
ing enterprises whose first campaigns have proved to be most fruitful.

In order to exercise over the exploitation of these national riches the effective
and continued contro] which is needed, it has appeared necessary to provide an
administrative organization for these southern islands and lands and to plan, for
this purpose, their attachment to an already constituted government: that of
Madagascar has seemed to me naturally designated, by the geographical situation
of that colony and by the means of action of which it can make use, to assure the
sovereign authority of France over that part of our colonial domain. Consulted
on the principle of this attachment, the governor general of Madagascar has de-
clared himself favorable to this measure and has just made known to my depart-
ment that he has decided to include in the budget of the colony a credit covering
the participation of Madagascar in the expenses of organizing these new de-
pendencies of the Great Island.

With these considerations, I have the honor to beg of you, Mr. President, to
have the kindness to complete with your signature the attached draft of a decree
which places the Saint-Paul and Amsterdam Islands, the Kerguelen and Crozet
Archipelagoes, and Adelie Land under the authority of the governor general of
Madagascar and confides to that high official the task of organizing, under the
supervision of my department, the effective administration of these territories.

I beg of you to accept, Mr. President, the homage of my profound respect.

Minister of colonies
DALADIER

* * *

The President of the French Republic,

Having seen the senatus consultum of 3 May 1854;

On the report of the minister of colonies,

Decrees:

Article 1. The Saint-Paul and Amsterdam Islands, the Kerguelen and Crozet
Archipelagoes, and Adelie Land are attached to the government general of
Madagascar and constitute one of the administrative dependencies of that colony.

Article 2. Some orders of the governor general of Madagascar subject to the
approval of the minister of colonies will fix the conditions for the application of
the present decree.

Article 3. The minister of colonies is responsible for the execution of the
present decree which will be published in the Official Jowrnals of the French

4]

Republic and of the colony of Madagascar and inserted in the Bulletin of Laws
and in the Official Bulletin of the ministry of colonies.
Done at Paris, 21 November 1924.
GASTON DOUMEGUE
By the President of the Republic:
Minister of colonies
DALADIER

MINISTRY OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS

Boundaries of French territory in the Antarctic region called “Adelie Land.”

The President of the French Republic,

Having seen the senatus consultum of 3 May 1854;

Having seen the decree of 21 November 1924 attaching the Saint-Paul and
Amsterdam Islands, the Kerguelen and Crozet Archipelagoes, and Adelie Land
to the government general of Madagascar;

On the report of the minister of foreign affairs and of the minister of colonies,

Decrees:

Article 1. The islands and territories situated south of the 60th degree of
South latitude and between the 136th and 142nd degrees of longitude East of
Greenwich are amenable to French sovereignty.

Article 2. The minister of foreign affairs and the minister of colonies are
responsible each in what concerns him for the execution of the present decree,
which will be published in the Official Journal of the French Republic, in the
Official Journal of the colony of Madagascar and inserted in the Official Bulletin
of the ministry of colonies.

Done at Paris, 1 April 1938.

ALBERT LEBRUN

By the President of the Republic:

Minister of foreign affairs
PAUL-BONCOUR
Minister of colonies
Marius MOurEeT.

GERMANY

Area of Claim. None

Date of Claim. None

Remarks. The German Antarctic Expedition of 1938-39 was made with
a view to establishing a claim, but none was announced. Unlike Japan,
Germany did not renounce possible claims after World War II.

JAPAN

Area of Claim. None

Date of Claim. None

Remarks. Japan sent one exploratory expedition to the Antarctic in
1911-12 and since 1934, with the exception of the war years, has carried on

SO ar

extensive whaling activities in the area. In 1940, Japan in a note to the
Government of Chile reserved her rights in the Antarctic but asserted no
formal claim. By the peace treaty signed with the Allied Powers on
September 8, 1951, Japan renounced all claim to any right or title to or
interest in any part of the Antarctic.

Relevant documents. Excerpt from Chapter II — Territory, Article II
of the Treaty of Peace, signed September 8, 1951.

Japan renounces all claim to any right or title to or interest in connection
with any part of the Antarctic area, whether deriving from the activities of
Japanese nationals or otherwise.

NEW ZEALAND

Area of Claim. 160° E. to 150° W.

Date of Claim. 1923

Remarks. The United Kingdom in 1923 assigned administrative au-
thority over the area between 160° E. and 150° W., known as the Ross
Dependency, to the Governor General of New Zealand. British claim to
the area was based on British expeditions to the area.

Relevant documents.

COPY

BRITISH ORDER IN COUNCIL providing for the Government of the Ross
Dependency. London, July 30, 1923.

* * *

At the Court at Buckingham Palace, the 30th day of July, 1923.

PRESENT: THE KING’S MOST EXCELLENT MAJESTY.

Lord President

Lord Chamberlain
Secretary Sir Samuel Hoare
Major George Tryon

WHEREAS by “The British Settlements Act, 1887,” it is, amongst other
things, enacted that it shall be lawful for His Majesty in Council from time to
time to establish all such laws and institutions and constitute such Courts and
officers as may appear to His Majesty in Council to be necessary for the peace,
order and good government of His Majesty’s subjects and others within any
British settlement;

And whereas the coasts of the Ross Sea, with the islands and territories ad-
jacent thereto, between the 160th degree of East Longitude and the 150th degree
of West Longitude, which are situated south of the 60th degree of South Lati-
tude, are a British settlement within the meaning of the said Act;

And whereas it is expedient that provision should be made for the govern-
ment thereof:

Now, therefore, His Majesty, by virtue and in exercise of the powers by the
said Act, or otherwise in His Majesty vested, is pleased, by and with the advice
of his Privy Council, to order, and it is hereby ordered, as follows:

=

1. From and after the publication of this Order in the “Government Gazette
of the Dominion of New Zealand” that part of His Majesty’s Dominions in the
Antarctic Seas, which comprises all the islands and territories between the 160th
degree of East Longitude and the 150th degree of West Longitude which are
situated south of the 60th degree of South Latitude shall be named the Ross
Dependency.

2. From and after such publication as aforesaid the Governor-General and
Commander-in-Chief of the Dominion of New Zealand for the time being (here-
inafter called “the Governor’’) shall be the Governor of the Ross Dependency;
and all the powers and authorities which by this Order are given and granted to
the Governor for the time being of the Ross Dependency are hereby vested in
him.

3. In the event of the death or incapacity of the said Governor-General and
Commander-in-Chief of the Dominion of New Zealand, or in the event of his
absence from the said Dominion, the officer for the time being administering the
government of the Dominion shall be Governor for the time being of the Ross
Dependency.

4. The said Governor is further authorised and empowered to make all such
rules and regulations as may lawfully be made by His Majesty’s authority for the
peace, order and good government of the said Dependency, subject, nevertheless,
to any instructions which he may from time to time receive from His Majesty or
through a Secretary of State.

5. The Governor is authorised to make and execute, on His Majesty’s behalf,
grants and dispositions of any lands which may lawfully be granted or disposed
of by His Majesty within the said Dependency, in conformity with such rules and
regulations as may from time to time be in force in the Dependency.

M. P. A. HANKEY

NORWAY

Area of Claim. 20° W. to 45° E.

Date of Claim. 1939

Remarks. The hinterland boundary of the Norwegian claim is obscure,
as the Order in Council of January 14, 1939, merely states that the main-
land coast “with the land lying within this coast and the environing sea,
shall be brought under Norwegian sovereignty.” Norway has also an-
nounced claims to the two sub-Antarctic islands of Bouvet and Peter I. As
a result of his successful journey to the South Pole in 1911, Roald Amund-
sen laid claim for Norway to the land along his route and to the area
around the South Pole, which he named Haakon VII Plateau. ‘These
claims have never been officially advanced by Norway, although their
existence was the subject of correspondence between the Governments of
Norway and the United States at the time of the First Byrd Antarctic
Expedition.

Relevant documents.

ORDER IN COUNCIL

We HAAKON, King of Norway, do hereby proclaim:

That part of the mainland coast in the Antarctic extending from the limits
of the Falkland Islands Dependencies in the West (the boundary of Coats Land)
to the limits of the Australian Antarctic Dependency in the East (45° E. Long.)
with the land lying within this coast and the environing sea, shall be brought
under Norwegian sovereignty.

Given at Oslo Palace on the 14th day of January 1939.

Under Our Hand and the Seal of the Realm.
HAAKON
(L.S.)
B. ROLSTED
JOHAN NYGAARDSVOLD
* * *

Recommendation from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the 14th January
1939, approved by Order in Council the same day:

By Order in Council of the 23rd January 1928,

Bouvet Island in the Antarctic Ocean was brought under Norwegian sov-
ereignty, and by Order in Council of the Ist May 1931 the same thing was done
with Peter I Island in the same ocean.

Bouvet Island lies in 3° 24’ E. Long. and 54° 26’ S. Lat., i.e. in that part of
the Antarctic region often called the Atlantic Sector. Peter I Island is situated
90° 35’ W. Long. and 68° 50’ S. Lat., i.e. in the Pacific Sector of the Antarctic
region.

Our object in bringing these islands in the Southern Ocean under Norwegian
sovereignty was to give the Norwegian whaling industry in that region points of
support and to guard it against possible encroachment on the part of foreign
powers.

Since that time there have been discussions between the Government author-
ities and the Norwegian interested parties as to whether it would not be right
and useful to bring a part of the Antarctic mainland under Norwegian sov-
ereignty.

Of this mainland with adjacent sea and islands, Great Britain brought under
her dominion in 1908 the area that has been named the Falkland Islands De-
pendencies. The region [of the] Ross Dependencies [sic!] was brought under
New Zealand in 1923; and the largest of all the Antarctic areas, from 160° to 45°
E. Long., was brought under Australia in 1933. In this latter area, however,
France had previously taken possession of a small area with a few islands viz.
Adelie Land around 140° E. Long.

Bouvet Island lies in the ocean between the British and the Australian sec-
tors. The land filling this intervening area is what has often been called the
Atlantic Sector, and here no state has yet claimed sovereignty.

The mainland in this region long remained unknown and unexplored. We
know that certain discovery expeditions long ago penetrated the seas adjacent to
this mainland, e.g. a Russian expedition in 1820 and two English expeditions in
1831 and 1843. But none of these expeditions got so far in as to sight land and
still less to put people ashore.

It was not until 1929 that exploring expeditions reached the mainland in this
part of the Antarctic, and these expeditions were Norwegian. In the summer of

45

1929-30 the whaler Lars Christensen sent out an expedition under the command
of Captain Riiser-Larsen accompanied by Captain Lutzow-Holm, who did ex-
ploration work and took cartophotographs from the air along great areas of the
country, including the region that was subsequently given the name of Kron-
prinsesse Marthas Land. On a second expedition in 1930-31 fitted out by Lars
Christensen a further large area was discovered and explored by airplane; that
land was named Prinsesse Ragnhild Land. It was to this land that Captain
Riiser-Larsen and others came on an expedition they made with the support of
the Norwegian Government in 1932-33, and there, as well as at other points
within the sector here in question, Norwegian whalers were close to the coast on
many occasions during those years. Finally, in the summer of 1936-37 Lars Chris-
tensen despatched still another expedition to the Antarctic, and on that occasion
Lieutenant Wideroe piloted a plane over extensive areas, so that a great deal of
new land was discovered and mapped both without and within the territory
which the former expeditions had visited, and a territory then explored between
Dronning Maud Land and Prinsesse Ragnhild Land was named Prins Harald
Land. On all these expeditions practically the whole of the mainland within the
Atlantic Sector bordering the sea was explored and mapped so well that we may
say that not many parts of the Antarctic continent are better known.

It should be mentioned that Norwegian explorers, Roald Amundsen and
others, have explored also other parts of the Antarctic, and in particular they
have in recent years explored and mapped much of the land which was brought
under Australia in 1933. There should, however, not be any question of Norway
laying claim to any land that has previously been taken possession of by another
state. This accords with the promise given by the Norwegian Government to
Great Britain in 1929 to the effect that it would not raise any claim in respect of
land within the region which had then been brought under the dominion of the
British Empire.

But Norway considers that it may with full right claim dominion over that
land which until now has lain unclaimed and, which none but Norwegians have
explored and mapped.

It is this very area which in recent years has been of capital importance to
Norwegian whaling. This fishery is now prosecuted on the high seas, but as the
summer advances the catches are made closer and closer to land. The mainland
coast in these parts runs approximately along the 70th degree of latitude and in
the beginning of the summer —in December — the edge of ice is usually along
the 60th degree. It is not until February that the factory boats draw near to
shore.

A question that may have an important bearing on the freedom to be ex-
tended to whaling expeditions is the determination of the limit of territorial
waters. But on this question there still exists a good deal of uncertainty. It has
been maintained that the ice-limit in the Antarctic must be regarded as the limit
of the continent, and Great Britain and the two British dominions that have
taken land here have in the main drawn the limit along the 60th degree of lati-
tude. What this implies in respect of the right to sovereignty does not appear
to be quite clear; one thing is, however, certain, namely that Norwegian whalers
operating within this limit were for a number of years required to pay a licence.

For the very reason that such questions of territorial limits remain undecided,
it is most desirable for the Norwegian whaling industry in those seas that Nor-

10) Sa

way should hold dominion over a wide tract of the mainland with adjacent
waters. Norway for her part will not claim any right to exclude other nations
from the waters over which she might thus have dominion, or prevent them in
any way from carrying whaling operations there. But Norwegian whalers should
be ensured against the possibility of other nations excluding them from these
waters or committing any action that might involve their industry in injury or
loss.

The Norwegian Government has for a long time been alive to this require-
ment, and ever since the question arose it has been giving its attention to the
preparation of an arrangement that would meet natural Norwegian demands.
The Government finds that the time has now come to take the final decision.

As mentioned above, Norway’s right to bring the said unclaimed land under
her dominion is founded on the geographical exploration work done by Nor-
wegians in this region, in which work they have been alone.

The practical considerations which should lead to Norway’s making use of
the right it must thus be said to have won, arise from the Norwegian whaling
operations in the Southern Ocean, and more particularly in the seas adjacent to
the territory here in question.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs therefore submits the following:

“That Your Majesty be pleased to assent and subscribe to a presented draft
of an Order in Council to the effect that such part of the coast of the Antarctic
Continent as extends from the limits of the Falkland Islands Dependencies in the
West (the boundary of Coats Land) to the limits of the Australian Antarctic
Dependency in the East (45° E. Long.) with the territory lying within this coast
and the adjacent seas, be brought under Norwegian sovereignty,

and that the Ministry of Justice be empowered to draw up regulations for the
exercise of police authority within this region.”

SWEDEN

Area of Claim. None
Date of Claim. None

Remarks. As far as is known, Sweden has no intention of claiming any
part of the Antarctic.

UNION OF SOUTH AFRICA

Area of Claim. Prince Edward Islands

Date of Claim. 1948

Remarks. The interest of the Union of South Africa has been limited
to certain sub-Antarctic islands of importance for meteorological obser-
vation.

Relevant documents.

OFFICE OF THE PRIME MINISTER AND DEPARTMENT OF
EXTERNAL AFFAIRS

No. 248. 30 January 1948

ee Ge

GOVERNMENT NOTICE

The following Proclamation was promulgated at the Prince Edward Islands
on the 24th January, 1948, and is now published for general information:
No. 12, 1948.

PROCLAMATION

By His Excellency the Right Honourable Gideon Brand van Zyl, a Member
of His Majesty’s Most Honourable Privy Council, Governor-General of the Union
of South Africa.

PRINCE EDWARD ISLANDS

Whereas the National Flag of the Union of South Africa was hoisted by the
Commander of His Majesty’s South African Frigate Transvaal on Marion Island,
situate latitude 46° 53’ S., longitude 37° 45’ E., on the 29th December 1947, and .
on Prince Edward Island, situate latitude 46° 36’ S., longitude 37° 57’ E., on the
4th January, 1948;

And whereas effective occupation and administration of the said Islands by
His Majesty’s Government in the Union of South Africa were established as
from the aforesaid dates and will continue permanently;

Now, therefore, by virtue of the powers vested in me by Section six of the
Royal Executive Functions and Seals Act, 1934, I do hereby proclaim and declare
that His Majesty’s sovereignty over Marion Island and Prince Edward Island is
henceforth to be exercised by His Majesty’s Government in the Union of South
Africa.

GOD SAVE THE KING

Given under my Hand and Great Seal at Cape Town on this Twelfth day of
January, One thousand Nine hundred and Forty-eight.
(signed) G. BRAND VAN ZYL,
Governor General.
By command of His Excellency the Governor-General-in-Council.
(signed) J. C. Smuts

UNION OF SOVIET SOCIALIST REPUBLICS

Area of Claim. None

Date of Claim. None

Remarks. When the Government of Norway in 1939 announced a
claim to Antarctic territories, including Peter I Island, first sighted by a
Russian navigator in 1821, the Soviet Union sent a note to Norway ob-
serving that it would reserve its opinion as to the national status of terri-
tories discovered by Russian citizens. In the autumn of 1948, the United
States Government circulated a proposal among the nations with an-
nounced claims calling for a discussion on possible arrangements for a
condominium in the area. Although not a recipient of this United States
communication, the Soviet Union took cognizance of its existence in a
memorandum of June 10, 1950, setting forth its position that no territorial
settlement should be made in the Antarctic without its participation.

AS ae

THE SOVIET MEMORANDUM ON THE ANTARCTIC, 1950

Since the autumn of 1948 a number of statements of the Ministries of For-
eign Affairs of the U. S. A., Great Britain and some other countries, and reports
in the world press, have referred to the negotiations on the Antarctic which were
begun on the initiative of the U. S. State Department between the United States
of America, Great Britain, France, Norway, Australia, New Zealand, Argentina
and Chile. From these same statements of the representatives of the Ministries
of Foreign Affairs of some states and from press reports it follows that the aim
of the negotiations is a decision of the question of the regime for the Antarctic.

The Government of the U.S.S.R. cannot agree that such a question as the
question of the regime for the Antarctic should be decided without their par-
ticipation. In this connection the Soviet Government consider it necessary to
recall the outstanding services of Russian navigators in the discovery of the
Antarctic. The fact is generally recognized that the Russian navigators, Bell-
ingshausen and Lazarev, at the beginning of the nineteenth century, were the
first to reach the shores of the Antarctic, that they circumnavigated the con-
tinent and proved thereby the erroneousness of the view which was widely held
at the time that there was no land beyond the antarctic circle. This service of
the Russian navigators is no less important than the later explorations on the
continent itself and on its shores, carried out by the expeditions of some coun-
tries whose representatives are now declaring their interest in the determination
of the regime for the Antarctic. —

It is common knowledge that the territory of the Antarctic and the waters
adjacent to it are of great value economically, and from this aspect the Antarctic
continent is of significance not only to the states enumerated above which are
taking part in the negotiations on the regime for the Antarctic, but also to many
other states, including the Soviet Union. It is sufficient to say that nine-tenths of
the world catch of whales comes specifically from antarctic waters. The U.S.S.R.
is a participant in the whaling industry and in the International Whaling Con-
vention of 1946. Its whaling flotillas regularly participate in the whaling trade
in antarctic waters.

The same state of affairs may be observed as regards the scientific significance
of the Antarctic, since this continent and the adjacent islands are a convenient
base for most important meteorological observations which are also of signifi-
cance to the northern hemisphere.

The attention of the Soviet public has already been drawn to these facts. In
particular they were commented upon in the resolution of a general meeting
of the Geographical Society of the U.S.S.R. (Vsesoyuznoye Geograficheskoye
Obshchestvo) of 10 February 1949, in which the Society stressed the very great
importance of the discoveries of Russian navigators in the Antarctic.

The Soviet Government consider it necessary to state that in accordance with
international practice all interested countries should be enlisted for the discus-
sion of the regime for any area of international significance. The Soviet Govern-
ment consider that this international practice should also be observed in deciding
the question of the Antarctic. It has already had occasion to point to the ille-
gality of a separate solution of the question of the state affiliation of the Antarctic
in an official note to the Norwegian Government dated 27 January 1939.1

Because of the above, the Soviet Government cannot recognize as legal any
decision on the regime for the Antarctic taken without their participation.

oo

They consider that because the fate of the Antarctic is of interest to many coun-
tries it would be expedient at the present time to discuss internationally the
question of the regime for the Antarctic, having in view the achievement of an
agreement such as would accord with the legitimate interests of all interested
states.

The Soviet Government for their part are prepared to examine any proposals
of the interested governments both regarding the procedure for the discussion
of this question and the nature of the regime for the Antarctic.

1 This Soviet note contested the right of the Norwegian Government to annex
Peter I Island.

UNITED KINGDOM

Area of Claim. 80° W. to 20° W.

Dates of Claim. 1908, 1917

Remarks. Known officially as the Falkland Islands Dependencies, the
British claim includes all islands lying off the Antarctic as well as the main-
land extending to the South Pole. This claim overlaps the entire Argen-
tine claim and all the Chilean claim except the area between 90° W. and
80° W. A considerable diplomatic correspondence has ensued between the
Governments of the United Kingdom, Argentina, and Chile regarding
these overlapping claims. In the case of Argentina, the point at issue has
been merged with the much older dispute concerning the sovereignty of
the Falkland Islands themselves. On May 4, 1955, the United Kingdom
made unilateral applications to the International Court of Justice setting
forth British title to the area and asking the Court to declare Argentine
and Chilean “encroachments” illegal and void under international law.
The Governments of Argentina and Chile, however, declined to accept
the jurisdiction of the Court, and on 18 March 1956 the Court announced
that both cases had been removed from the list of pending actions.

Relevant documents.

British Letters Patent of 1908 and 1917 Constituting the
Falkland Islands Dependencies

LETTERS PATENT OF 21 JULY 1908

British Letters Patent appointing the Governor of the Colony of the Falkland
Islands to be Governor of South Georgia, the South Orkneys, the South Shet-
lands, the Sandwich Islands and Graham’s Land, and providing for the Govern-
ment thereof as Dependencies of the Colony. — Westminster, July 21st 1908.

Edward the Seventh, by the Grace of God of the United Kingdom of Great
Britain and Ireland and of the British Dominions beyond the Seas, King, De-
fender of the Faith, Emperor of India: To all to whom these Presents shall come,
Greeting.

WHEREAS the group of islands known as South Georgia, the South Orkneys,
the South Shetlands, and the Sandwich Islands, and the territory known as
Graham’s Land, situated in the South Atlantic Ocean to the south of the 50th
parallel of South latitude, and lying between the 20th and the 80th degrees of

50 =

West longitude, are part of our Dominions, and it is expedient that provision
should be made for their government as Dependencies of our Colony of the
Falklands:

1. Now We do hereby declare that from and after the publication of these
our Letters Patent in the Government “Gazette” of our Colony of the Falkland
Islands the said group of islands known as South Georgia, the South Orkneys,
the South Shetlands and the Sandwich Islands, and the said territory of Graham’s
Land shall become Dependencies of our said Colony of the Falkland Islands.

2. And we do hereby further declare that from and after such publication
as aforesaid the Governor and Commander-in-Chief of our Colony of the Falk-
land Islands for the time being (hereinafter called the Governor) shall be the
Governor of South Georgia, the South Orkneys, the South Shetlands, and the
Sandwich Islands, and the territory of Graham’s Land (all of which are herein-
after called the Dependencies); and we do hereby vest in him all such powers of
government and legislation in and over the Dependencies as are from time to
time vested in our said Governor in and over our Colony of the Falkland Islands,
subject, nevertheless, to any instructions which may from time to time be here-
after given him under our Sign Manual and Signet, or through one of our
Principal Secretaries of State, and to such laws as are now or shall hereafter be
in force in the said Dependencies.

3. In the event of the death or incapacity of the Governor, or in the event
of his absence from our Colony of the Falkland Islands otherwise than for the
purpose of visiting the Dependencies, the officer for the time being administering
the government of our said Colony shall be Governor for the time being of the
Dependencies.

4. There shall be an Executive Council for the Dependencies, and the said
Council shall consist of such persons as shall from time to time constitute the
Executive Council of our Colony of the Falkland Islands; and the said Council
shall exercise the same functions in regard to all matters arising in connection
with the Dependencies as are exercised by the Executive Council of our Colony
of the Falkland Islands in regard to matters arising in connection with our said
Colony.

5. It shall be, and shall be deemed always to have been, competent for the
Governor, by and with the advice and consent of the Legislative Council of our
Colony of the Falkland Islands, to make laws for the peace, order, and good
government of the Dependencies.

6. The Governor is, and shall be deemed always to have been, authorised
and empowered to make and execute, in our name and on our behalf, grants and
dispositions of any lands which may lawfully be granted or disposed of by us -
within the Dependencies, either in conformity with instructions under our Sign
Manual and Signet, or through one of our Principal Secretaries of State, or in
conformity with such laws as may from time to time be in force in the De-
pendencies.

7. We do hereby reserve to us, our heirs and successors, full power and
authority from time to time to revoke, alter, or amend these our Letters Patent
as to us or them shall seem meet.

8. The Governor shall cause these our Letters Patent to be published in the

5]

Government “Gazette” of our Colony of the Falkland Islands, and the same shall
thereupon come into force.

In witness whereof we have caused these our Letters to be made Patent. Wit-
ness ourself at Westminster, this 21st day of July, in the eighth year of our reign.

By Warrant under the King’s Sign Manual.
(signed) Muir MACKENZIE

LETTERS PATENT OF 28 MARCH 1917

LETTERS PATENT, passed under the Great Seal of the United Kingdom,
providing for the further Definition and Administration of certain Islands and
Territories as Dependencies of the Colony of the Falkland Islands. (Dated 28th
March 1917.)

George the Fifth, by the Grace of God of the United Kingdom of Great
Britain and Ireland and of the British Dominions beyond the Seas, King, De-
fender of the Faith, Emperor of India: To all to whom these Presents shall
come, Greeting.

WHEREAS doubts have arisen as to the limits of the groups of islands known
as South Georgia, the South Orkneys, the South Shetlands, and the Sandwich
Islands, and the territory of Graham Land otherwise known as Graham’s Land;
and whereas it is expedient that provision should be made for the government,
not only of these islands and territory but also of certain other of Our islands
and territories adjacent thereto as Dependencies of Our Colony of the Falkland
Islands:

1. Now We do hereby declare that from and after the publication of these
Our Letters Patent in the Government Gazette of Our Colony of the Falkland
Islands, the Dependencies of Our said Colony shall be deemed to include and
to have included all islands and territories whatsoever between the 20th degree
of West longitude and the 50th degree of West longitude which are situated
south of the 50th parallel of South latitude; and all islands and territories what-
soever between the 50th degree of West longitude and the 80th degree of West
longitude which are situated south of the 58th parallel of South latitude.

2. And We do hereby vest in the Governor and Commander-in-Chief of Our
Colony of the Falkland Islands all such powers and authorities in and over the
lands hereby included in the Dependencies of Our said Colony as are exercised
by him over the Dependencies in virtue of certain Letters Patent bearing date at
Westminster the Twenty-first day of July 1908.

3. We do hereby reserve to Ourselves, Our heirs and successors, full power
and authority from time to time to revoke, alter or amend these Our Letters
Patent as to Us or them shall seem meet.

4. ‘The Governor shall cause these our Letters Patent to be published in the
Government Gazette of Our Colony of the Falkland Islands and the same shall
thereupon come into force.

In witness whereof We have caused these Our Letters to be made Patent.
Witness Ourself at Westminster the Twenty-eighth day of March in the Seventh
Year of Our Reign.

By Warrant under the King’s Sign Manual.
(signed) SCHUSTER

UNITED STATES

Area of Claim. None

Date of Claim. None

Remarks. The United States Government has made no formal claims
to Antarctic territory, but reserves all rights accruing from United States
explorations and discoveries. It does not recognize claims made by other
nations. The present United States position is discussed briefly by Dr.
Gould (pp. 12-16).

Relevant documents. Refusal by Secretary of State Hughes to admit
that rights of sovereignty over polar areas may be based upon the formality
of taking possession after discovery. Letter in reply to the Norwegian
Minister concerning the United States attitude with respect to claims to
- newly discovered lands.

The Secretary of State to the Norwegian Minister (Bryn)
Washington, April 2, 1924

Sir: With reference to your note of February 25, 1924, concerning an alleged
agreement of Roald Amundsen to allow the United States to claim all lands he
might discover on his projected aeroplane expedition to the North Polar regions,
I beg to inform you that I am in receipt of a communication from the Acting
Secretary of the Navy stating that a search of the files of the Navy Department
shows that the article which appeared in the Rochester Herald was incorrect in
its statement that any offer made by Mr. Hammer was acknowledged by the
Secretary of the Navy. The basis for the rumor contained in the clipping from
the Rochester Herald of January 7, 1924, is, however, to be found in a signed
statement, dated October 26, 1923, made by H. H. Hammer, the American rep-
resentative of Captain Amundsen, to Captain Johnson, Assistant Chief of the
Bureau of Aeronautics, of the Navy Department, setting forth the plans for the
transpolar flight.

In the concluding sentence Mr. Hammer states “although Captain Amundsen
is Norwegian, he would not lay claim to any new lands discovered on behalf of
his government, and an American officer could if so desired claim it for his
government.” The Navy Department did not reply to this offer in any manner.
Furthermore, the Acting Secretary of the Navy states that while Lieutenant
Davison was granted permission to volunteer to accompany the expedition,
“The Navy has no official connection with the expedition and no control over
the plans made by Captain Amundsen to carry it forward.”

In the penultimate paragraph of your letter you state that, in order to avoid
any misunderstanding, you would add that possession of all the land which
Mr. Amundsen may discover will, of course, be taken in the name of His Majesty,
the King of Norway. In my opinion rights similar to those which in earlier
centuries were based upon the acts of a discoverer, followed by occupation or
settlement consummated at long and uncertain periods thereafter, are not
capable of being acquired at the present time. Today, if an explorer is able to
ascertain the existence of lands still unknown to civilization, his act of so-called
discovery, coupled with a formal taking of possession, would have no significance,
save as he might herald the advent of the settler; and where for climatic or

53

other reasons actual settlement would be an impossibility, as in the case of the
Polar regions, such conduct on his part would afford frail support for a reason-
able claim of sovereignty. I am therefore compelled to state, without now
adverting to other considerations, that this Government cannot admit that such
taking of possession as a discoverer by Mr. Amundsen of areas explored by him
could establish the basis of rights of sovereignty in the Polar regions, to which,
it is understood, he is about to depart.
Accept (etc.)
CHARLES E. HUGHES

Gould: The Polar Regions in their relation to Human Affairs

—

| BATHYMETRIC MAP
OF THE
ARCTIC BASIN

Kilometers
0 100 2 300 400

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Principal source: ‘Scheme of Drifting Ice of the
Arctic Ocean" map in V. F. Burkhanov, ed.: Across
the Ocean on Drifting Ice (Moscow, 1957), facing p.28

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Lithographed in USA by A. Hoen & Co.

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