THE BRITISH FLAG IN SPITZBERGEN.

Press, Volume LV, Issue 16421, 15 January 1919, Page 5

THE BRITISH FLAG IN SPITZBERGEN.

* MORE LIGHT ON AN IMPERIAL EXPEDITION. The recent expedition to the Spitsbergen Group was the subject of an interview with Mr F. W. Salisbury Jones, managing director of the British Northern Exploration Company, published in the "Morning Post": — This new British territory (for such it is, practically, although it has not been formally annexed) was a British possession as far back as the reign of James 1., and was effectively occupied for something like fifty, years, but towards tho end of the seventeenth century the settlement teems to have., been abandoned, and the country.-remained a No Man's Land until "the present century, •when, as the result of/the. investigations of a number of scientific expeditions, the existence of vast mineral wealth in the Archipelago was revealed. Among those who took advantage of these revelations were certain Swedish and Norwegian companies, and the Northern Exploration Company, which owns approximately 2000 square miles of land in Spitsbergen. This company, s operations were, however, suspended m consequence of the war until a few months ago, when the Foreign Office undertook to accord the company's property the protection of the .British flagFurther, in conjunction with the Foreign Office, and with the support of the other Government Departments concerned, an expedition was equipped and dispatched to Spitzbergen. This expedition was originally under Sir Ernest Shackleton, and his second in command wfis Captain Frank Wild, a member of both the Scott and Sliackleton Antarctic expeditions, who was released by the Admiralty for this duty. For official reasons, however, Sir Ernest Shackleton was compelled to leave the ship while in Norway. The party comprised about two hundred persons, including a number of mining and engineering experts, and the expedition was equipped with three months' food and other supplies for three hundred. men, besides vast stores of mining, engineering, and housing material. GERMAN SPIES AND THEIR . AGENTS. We experienced some difficulties in Northern Norway from the .machinations of German spies and their agents. Germany appears to have attached great importance to the acquisition of a share of these enormous coal and iron doposits in Spitzbergen, where before the war sho had established a wireless station, which has since been destroyed by British guns. Sweden and Norway also have large interests in the islands, and it is reported that enormous profits have already been made by the Swedish and Norwegian companies out of Spitzbergen coal and iron ore during tho war. The output of coal during last year was over 100,000 tons, and one company alone was reputed to have made £80,000 profit, which is not at all improbable with coal commanding £13 per ton in Norway. However, we overcame all our initial difficulties —which were not inconsiderable —and carried out our mission successfully. It may be said with certainty that British interests in Spitzbergen are now established on a wider area and on a more secure f6undation than before the war, and that the results will be of great national importance. 8000 MILLION TONS OF COAL. How great those interests are likely to become may bo readily inferred from the I'acts that, the coal areas in Spitsbergen cover something like -000 squuro miles, the seams varying from two to twelve feet in.thickness, with estimated reserves of over'Booo million toils, comprising bituminous, steam, anthracite, and cannel coals. Alongside the coal are enormous deposits of high-grade iron ore. assaying as high as oO to <0 per cent, of pure iron, not in patches or seems, but in veritable mountainous formation. It is a ricnor ore than any now mined in England, richer even than that imported from Spam. Indeed, the only iron ore at all comparable with that of Spitzbergen is tho Gellivare ore of Sweden. Thousands upon thousands of tons of this ore—among the richest in the world —are only awaiting transportation to become of vital use to us and our Allies. It is important to know that the Imperial Government will furnish tho necessary shipping facilities.