The Times THURSDAY, JANUARY 4, 1940. Admiral Byrd's Mission

Manawatu Times, Volume 65, Issue 3, 4 January 1940, Page 6

The Times THURSDAY, JANUARY 4, 1940. Admiral Byrd's Mission

Interest in Antarctic exploration, ivliieli is momentarily revived by the arrival of Admiral Byrd i:i New Zealand, will naturally be associated with a measure of curiosity and speculation as to the exact purposes of the expedition which, under his leadership, the United States Government is sending to the South Bolar regions. It may be recalled that earlier in the present year, before the European situation became an allengrossing subject of attention, there was considerable discussion respecting territorial ownership in Antarctica.

Appearances rather suggested then that the stage was being set for an international race for the staking out of claims in that inhospitable region. The announcement in July last that Admiral Byrd was to lead an expedition to establish permanent buses in the South Polar areas to which the United States laid claim, was coupled with a statement by officials that the United States Government might go so far as to declare it an unfriendly act for non-American Powers to set up establishments in that part of the Antarctic that is within the western hemisphere. This provided he signal, it may be remembered, for some manifestations of disquiet on the part of Argentina. The South American republic has a liberal conception of its own sovereign rights in the South Polar region, and has not welcomed the intrusion of the Monroe doctrine in the case.

It may also be recalled that about that time Germany was asserting claims to some 250,000 square miles of territory adjoining the American sector in the Antarctic, and was reported to be hastening to scud an expedition before the end of .September to hoist the swastika in an area between Little America and Palmer Land. With that project other preoccupations, a consequence of other territorial aspirations, have no doubt seriously interfered.

At the time of his definite direction by President Roosevelt to lead the present American expedition south, Admiral Byrd was reported to have said that this represented “a race to prevent the invasion of the Antarctic by foreign Powers.” The New York Times pointed out editorially that, if Admiral Byrd claimed all the land “as planned” in relation to the 180th meridian, it would enclose two-fifths of the British-claimed Ross Sea dependency, and it added rather naively: “As nothing valuable has yet been discovered in this area Britain is unlikely to raise serious objections.”

All this is sufficient to remind us that Antarctic claims have figured as the subject of growing complications of recent times. The romance attending Polar exploration and discovery would seem to have faded to a large extent with the advent of mechanism which, in an increasing degree, has become an essential part of the outfit of an Antarctic expedition. The existence of competition among the nations for place or sovereignty in the frozen south would, however, argue the attachment of value to these regions. What that value may be remains largely a dubious and unknown quantity.

Perhaps considerations of national prestige and strategy have weighed more than economic hopes have. Legal aspects of the question of Antarctic ownership seem to bear some semblance to an uncharted sea. By international law discovery gives no more than an inchoate title, to be made real by effective occupation within a reasonable period. Effective occupation in the Antarctic has hitherto been virtually impossible. Britain has taken the view that here the normal criteria are inapplicable, and has claimed sovereignty over that territory on whose coasts her explorers and scientists have worked, and this conception has not been seriously disputed, unless, perhaps, by Argentina.

Admiral Byrd is content in the meantime to emphasise the scientific aspects of the present expedition. His attitude, he has observed, is that science knows no boundaries, and the Antarctic, he has very sensibly said, “would not bo worth fighting for, anyhow.” That may not prevent it from being increasingly the subject of a war of words.