THE POLE.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LII, Issue 193, 18 September 1909, Page 6

THE POLE.

WHO OWXS THE POLE! The constitution of the United States, according to the Attorney-General, follows tliv Flag, and Dr. took and Com-ma-iider Peary have presumably made the Xorth Pole a territory of the United States. Rut the question of ownership is not to be settled quite so simply. If the Xorth Pole happens to be on an island with three miles of clear water—or ice—around it. there will be no dispute. But if there is land, and the land .happens to be a portion of some other laud and is connected with territory already annexed, the title of the discoverers will not be a clean one. Sir Wilfrid Laurier once observed in the Dominion House of Commons that American names had been given on recent maps to territories in the far nor;t> which, in his judgment, were under British jurisdiction. That jurisdiction, he added, would be asserted, and Americans would not be permitted to take a position in those, lands. Franz Josef Uaud is claimed by Austria, Spitsbergen by Sweden. Greenland belongs to Denmark, and Orinnell Land to Britain. If the North Pole should prove, to be linked by and with any one of these le.-ri-lories. there might be technical ground fur holding that it belongs to the owner of the connected land, not !« the discoverers. Of course, in such a ease Britain or Austria or Denmark, as the case might be, would probably be proud to make a graceful concession anil waive her claim. So far as new lands are concerned, there is a very old doctrine licit discovery gives a valid title, but the title may be lost by neglect and must be made good by occupation, if the Americans want the Pole permanently, therefore, thev must semi I'enry ov Conk to live there. ' By all the .scntimenlal rules of the game, however, the Xortli Pole is American territory, ami the Americans are fully entitled'to exploit its natural resources. Our only fear is (hat the accepted tlieorv that the Pole stands in the middle of ho sea will prove correct, in which ease the discoverer can give, it no nationality. The United States Attorney-General mav eerlainlv claim jurisdiction over the' lilnek of'ice on which Ouiimamler Pearv camped, lint when that block drifts within the three-mile limit of some foreign countrv the American 'a v will cease to run.—Lyttelton Times.