Perhaps They Found New Zealand Too!
LONDON, March 9. Who discovered Antarctica? Why Russia,, of course, not Captain James Cook. The Russians, according to Moscow radio, discovered that continent in January 1820. The claim was made at the scientific council of the Geography Institute o± the U.S.S.R. Aeademy of Sciences, meeting in Moscow. A similar claim was made by the Soviet Geographic Society two weeks ago. The institute director, Mr. A. A. Grigoryev, reiterated the society 's statement that all future deeisions on the "Antaretic taken without Soviet participation, were ' ' ' illegal. ' ' Mr. Grigoryev, flanked by leading Russian geography professors, told the institute that Captains Y. F. Bellingshausen and M. P. Lazarev proved -that Britain 's famed Captain James Cook did not discover the Antaretic in 1776. Cook had said there were no land masses there except near the South Pole, according to the Russian argument. Bnt the two Russian explorers, who sailed from Ivronstadt on Juty 4, 1819, came elose to an enormous ice field where no one had been before them. Thus they were. the first to discover the Antaretic, approaching it three times — twice in January 1820 and the third time in January 1821. ^ "On July 24, 1821, the expedition returned to Kronstadt after a 751-day voyage, having circumnavigated Antarctica. This is an event unpreeedented in the history of world science. ' ' Mr. Grigoryev said: "The Continent of Antarctica and the islands near it are the base for rich whaling enterprises where the Soviet whaling fleet is now working for the third year." Mr. Grigoryev concluded: "Russian navigators refuted the idea, then pver a eentury old, that a continent did not exist at all. They did so by discovering the Antaretic and therefore the U.S.S.R. has an indisputable right to take part in all deeisions eoncerning it. Soviet geographers must raise tneir voice and declare that all deeisions taken without the "participation of U.S.S.R. are illegal." \
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Chronicle (Levin), 10 March 1949, Page 5
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317Perhaps They Found New Zealand Too! Chronicle (Levin), 10 March 1949, Page 5
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