AUSTRALIAN MOVE THIS SUMMER

Rotorua Morning Post, Issue 5284, 21 December 1946, Page 5

AUSTRALIAN MOVE THIS SUMMER

(Press Assr

INTEREST IN ARTARCTTC

SHORT RECONNAISSANCE VOYAGE PLANNED

i. — Rec. 9.30 p.m.)

' CANBERRA, Dec. 20. Australia will begin exploration and development of Antarctic territory this summer, according to a statement by the Prime Minister, Mr. Chifiey, who said that if possible a short reconnaissance voyage would be undertaken this summer by a naval ship, equipped with aircraft, to.find 2. suitable ice-free base and to earry out general reconnaissance. The departments concerned will proceed immediately to develop concrete plans for the Cabinet's conside^ation for exploratio-n and development in the Antarctic within their respective spheres. The Council for Scientific and Industrial Research will be the co-ordinating authority. The -Department of Extemal Affairs will be kept informed of progress and will follow up certain international aspects, in particular the extent to which New Zealand and Britain are prepared to join in the prc-posals. Mr. F. P. Anderson, director of the Commonwealth fisheries division of the Department of Commerce and Agriculture, said Australia would have to move quickly if she wished to enter the whaling industry. Mr. Anderson, who was one cf the two Australian delegates at the international whaling* conference in Washington this month, said that Britain, Norway, Russia, the Netherlands East Indies and South Africa had arranged whaling expeditions to the Antarctic, and there would be an Americansponsored Japanese expedition. The whaling season, which officially began on December 7, would last four months.