OWNERSHIP OF ISLANDS

Evening Star, Issue 19796, 21 February 1928, Page 5

OWNERSHIP OF ISLANDS

QUESTIONS IH COMOIIS

FOREIGN SECRETARY REPLIES.

Press Association—By Telegraph—Copyright

RUGBY, February 20. (Received February 21, at noon.) Viscount Sandon asked the Foreign Secretary in the House of Commons what information ho had had regarding the existence—denied by Norwegian whalers—of the whereabouts of Thompson Island, claimed by Britain, and what was the position ns to the rival claims of the British Government and the Norwegian Government to Bouvet Island. The Foreign Secretary replied that Thompson Island was first discovered by Captain Norris in December, 1825, and had only once boon sighted since, namely, by Captain Fuller, an American seaman, in 1893. The island was unsuccessfully searched for in 1898 and in 1926, but in view of Captain Norris’s definite statement and the confirmation afforded by Captain Fuller, there appeared to be no ground for questioning its existence, although there was some degree of uncertainty regarding its position. The British Government had informed the Norwegian Government that it considered that the title acquired by virtue of occupation of Bmnct Island by Captain Norris in 1825 to be valid, and that in the circumstances it must formally reserve all its rights in connection with that island.