Cold comfort on the ice

Press, 14 February 1986, Page 18

Cold comfort on the ice

By

KEN COATES

Whatever the rights and wrongs of the Government’s attitude to private expeditions to the Antarctic, official treatment meted out to visitors to New Zealand’s Scott Base has caused grave discontent among staff there and unease back home. The discontent has come to a head with the early return home of one employee and the dismissal of another. Three members of the Footsteps of Scott expedition were asked to leave the Scott Base bar and Greenpeace members were refused the services of the Scott Base post office after they apparently gave insufficient notice of their visit.

It was reported that as early as last November the two leaders of the Footsteps expedition, Roger Mear and Robert Swan, caused a stir when they took hot showers and apparently even ate a few meals at the base. Criticism has centred on the heavy-handed interpretation by officials of Government policy that no assistance be offered to either expedition. In the words of one critic, in lonely places where the going is tough, the code of hospitality needs no law. Visits and new faces are such a pleasure that friendship, shelter and comfort are offered automatically. Even the Prime Minister, Mr Lange, has indicated that the problem is not so much with the rules, as with they way they are interpreted and applied. The Government is reviewing instructions for treating members of private expeditions.

More evidence of Scott Base staffs discontent with official rulings affecting visits to the base, and to nearby McMurdo Station, have come from an employee sent home early, Mr Kerry Glynn, aged 26, of Christchurch.

Restrictions imposed on Scott Base staff barring them from visiting the American station, unless invited by a senior officer, led to protest and later withdrawal of the ruling. The restriction applying to all staff was posted on the noticeboard during a visit by the Head of the D.S.I.R.’s Antarctic Division, Mr Bob Thomson, last month, and created very bad feeling, said Mr Glynn, who was stores officer. He was sent home after writing to “The Press” opposing huskies being put down and

questioning disposal of rubbish in the Antarctic. He previously worked with computers for the Navy in Wellington. Mr Glynn said Mr Thomson insisted that his ruling on base visits had always been policy. It might have had something to do with the presence of some New Zealander from McMurdo in the Scott Base bar.

The ruling also stipulated that if a Scott Base staff member wanted to invite someone from McMurdo to vist — and this included any of more than 100 other New Zealanders working for the Americans — he must first obtain permission of the officer in charge of the New Zealand base. The usual routine was merely to inform the chef of an extra meal or two.

After the Footsteps expedition ship sank, people rescued by the Americans were invited to attend

a party at Scott Base. This was held to mark completion of a maintenance building by a New Zealand Army construction crew. “We knew that officially I we were not supporting the expedition, but it seemed a good Naw Zealand thing to do to invite trap shipwrecked people,” said Mr Glynn. As a courtesy, the captain of the Southern Quest, Graeme Phippen, asked permission from Mr Thomson for his party to accept the invitation. After some vacillation, Mr Phippen was given to understand that he and his men would be allowed to come. "But no-one fron the expedition turned up,” said Mr Glynn. This followed the incident in which three expedition members were asked to leave the bar, profits from which are used to

support the Scott Base Social Club. Mr Glynn and another staff member met Mr Thomson and expressed disappointment, as many New Zealanders had got to know the Footsteps expedition members. Grievances were later aired at a base meeting at which, after vigorous criticism, Mr Thomson reversed his ruling on staff visits to McMurdo and invitations to Scott Base, according to Mr Glynn. The Christchurch man also criticised rubbish disposal, saying metal and material which could not be burned should be sent back for destruction in New Zealand. Junk, old tyres, scrap and two old trucks awaited melting of the ice and eventual dropping into the sea. Other refuse from Scott Base was taken to an open dump behind McMurdo Station where rubbish was set on fire periodically. Scott Base should have an efficient incinerator in an environment in which even a piece of paper did not break down and disappear, he said. Mr Glynn noted that the presence of Greenpeace caused increased awareness, and a work party had cleared litter from roadsides. The 18 huskies, which he helped feed and exercise, should be kept, he argues. They have an important recreational value for staff isolated for months on end. "To go out and see the dogs, just to pat them, is a refreshing experience,” he says. “We preserve many historic things — why not them?” An alternative food to seal meat, in the form of pemmican, has been arranged, and funds could easily be raised to ensure the dogs are looked after, he claims. “V.I.P. visitors, from American admirals to New Zealand politicians, are always taken for a ride in a dog sledge and they love it. It is great public relations for New Zealand.” Mr Glynn says staff relations were good during the summer at Scott Base, but morale suffered recently because decisions were made which cut across the New Zealand way of dealing with people. Mr Thomson is not talking to journalists about the Scott Base controversy.