THE WHITE CONTINENT

Rotorua Morning Post, Issue 5301, 14 January 1947, Page 4

THE WHITE CONTINENT

j international race reminiscent of the competition for slices of Africa in the last century bade fair to develop when the United States announced its intention of sending an expedition to the Antarctic Continent in search, among other things, of uranium, but up to the present, it looks as if the Americans will win by default. Tragedy and hardship have already visitcd their advance guard, just as j heroism and tragedy marched j with the previous enterprises on i this continent, but the cost in j lives will count little if the j results are rich in discovery. Britain has had a meteorological base there for some : years ; unknown to all but a few. The United States has also been operating and other countries which have claimed interest in the great south land are Russia, Norway, Chile, Argentina, as well as the natural territorial guardians of the area, Australia, South Africa and New Zealand. Here, at the out- , set, it is pointed out, was an excellent opportunity of pntting into practice the formula of international unity endorsed by the United Nations and substituting for a scramble for advantage a "co-operative approach, with results that wrould be the gain of the world at large. Howeveivsince there has been no such enlightened agreement — at anyrate, no open agreement — on this question, New Zealand, under whose aegis is the Ross Sea Dependency, probably the most valuable coastal area round the ice cap, should not stand by as a spectator while the benefits of exploration, scientific and material, are gathered by others. As the Australian sphere of influence, stretching across about 100 degrees of Iongitude, adjoins that of the Dominion, it would be natural for these two countries to combine. Is it too late to hope that this can be arranged?