British Attempt on South Pole Icecap

Chronicle (Levin), 15 February 1949, Page 5

British Attempt on South Pole Icecap

Received Monday, 7 p.m. SANTIAGO, Feh. 13. A British party will attempt to cross the South Pole icecap during 1950, according to a report that reached Santiago today from the Chilean Antarctic expedition. The report came from the ships Covadonga and Lautaro which stopped last week at the British hase on Deception Island before resuming attempts to get thro-ugh Branfield Strait to Chile's base on O'Higgins Land' (Palmer Peninsula). The report said a party headed hy Major Pierce Butler, chief of Britain's Antarctic operations, would attempt to take special winterised" vehicles across the frozen continent from Weauell Sea to Ross Sea. The direct route hetween the two seas would pass north of the South Pole and it was not certain that the British party would attempt a detour to the Pole itself. The relations between the B^tish and Chilean parties were not clouded by the high level dispute between Chile and Britaimover the ownership of "Deception Island. When the Chilean ships arrived, Major Butler and other British officials went ahoard to confer with Captain Peopoldo Fontaine, commodore of the Chilean flotilla, about adverse weather conditions which had blocked his efforts to pass through the Strait. Chilean and British crewmen associated freely,, playing soccer and > sharing the island 's limited recreation facilities. Before the Covadonga and Lautaro sailed, Major Butler made the Chilean 's a present • of five Arctic sledge dogs to be used by the men at the O'Higgins Land base. •