ANTARCTIC AREA

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 69, Issue 159, 18 April 1949, Page 3

ANTARCTIC AREA

U.s, EXPLORATION PLAN WASHINGTON, April 16 Secret preparations are. being made in-Washington for a gigantic United States, expedition to the Antarctic, which may have farreaching international consequences, says the United Press. Tlie expedition, it was said tonight, may produce a/ formal American claim to strategic areas of the southern continent.

The decision to dispatch a new American expedition follows the failure of American efforts to reach an agreement for the international control of Antarctica. The American preparation assumes particular importance in view of the mounting that Russia is planning to stake a claim in Antarctica where, according to the Moscow radio, “there is reason to ,believe that uranium is to be found.” It has long been recognised that Russian explorers, were the first to discover land inside the Antarctic circle. Powerful Soviet whaling fleets cruised the South Polar Sea for four months lasf winter. Hitherto the United States has made no claim to Antarctic territory, and has officially refused to recognise the claims of other nations. ✓ Admiral Richard Byrd will lead another expedition to the South Pole, according to -a radio commentator tonight. The proposed expedition would not begin before late in 1950 and, according to the commentator, it promised to be the most spectacular of ad time and certainly the. most daring trip Admiral Byrd has ever attempted. The commentator said that Admiral Byrd hoped to explore a vast of the icecap embracing 3,000,000 square miles on the opposite side or the South Pole from Little America.