ANTARCTIC DISCOVERY

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 249, 15 July 1919, Page 6

ANTARCTIC DISCOVERY

NEW BEITISH EXPEDITION. As briefly cabled previously, plans are being prepared for' another Antarctic expedition, which will sail in the famous ship Terra Nova, and be' assisted by the latest improvements in aviation and wireless telegraphy. The organisation is already in an advanced 6tage (says the London "Times"), It ■ will be known as the "British Imperial Antarctic Expedition," its leader being Mr. John L. Cope. Mr. Cope's name is well known in connection with expeditions to the Antarctic. He accompanied the Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition, 1914-17 as surgeon and biologist to the-.Eoss Sea party, and was one of the party of nine who were left on tho Great Ice Barrier to lay depots after the Aurora had broken away from her moorings. Since returning to this country Mr', Cope has served in the B.N.V.R. as a lieutenant, but ho has never abandoned the idea of organising a further venture at the earliest possible date. Arrangements are so far advanced .that the expedition will be able to leavo Britain in June, 1920, and Mr. Cope states that the expedition will return in 1926. Daring the six years continuous communication is to ho maintained with the centres, of civilisation by means of wireless equipment.

The main objects of the expedition will 'be': —

1- To ascertain the position and extent of the mineralogical and other deposits of economic value known to exist in Antarctica, and arrange for their practical development as a further source of Imperial wealth.

li. To obtain further evidence of the distribution and migration of the whales of economic value, and to create n British industry.

3. To investigate the meteorological and magnetic conditions of the Itoss Sea area and at Cape Ann (Enderbv Land) in connection with .their influence on similar conditions in Australasia and South Africa respectively, Such results have been proved of great value by the stations established by the Argentine Government in tlio South Orkneys and by that established on Macquarie Island, by Iho Commonwealth of Australia, which has been given up owing to t.hc war. i. Generally to extend knowledge of Antarctica especially with a viow to obtaining further scientific data of.cconomic importance. Mr. Cope states that arrangements are being made to (alee an aeroplane to asskt in surveying the interior of the continent. With this machine even a flight to the South Polo is contemplated.