ANTARCTIC TREATY

Press, Volume XCIX, Issue 29232, 16 June 1960, Page 13

ANTARCTIC TREATY

Opposition To Ratification

WASHINGTON, June 14. The Senate Foreign Relations Committee was told today that the Soviet presence in Antarctica was embarrassing to Australia. Several members of Congress urged that the United States put off ratification of the Antarctic treaty and instead lay formal territorial claims to portions of the continent.

The Congressmen put forward their views when the Senate Foreign Relations Committee opened a public hearing today on ratification of the 12-nation treaty. Several witnesses immediately claimed that it represented a “giveaway” to the Soviet Union. A Republican member of the House of Representatives, Mr John Pillion, endorsed the position of Senator Clair Engle (Democrat, California), who deplored the position of equality which the treaty would give the Soviet Union. Mr Pillion said: “We should do it by purchase, mutual recognition, and agreement.” He contended that the Soviet Union had no legal basis for claims in Antarctica. Its presence there was embarrassing to Australia. He said that when the Soviet Union was invited to participate in the International Geophysical Year it quickly seized the opportunity to establish a base at Mirny in the sector claimed by Australia. “Since the Soviet occupied this base without asking permission from Australia the Australian Government found itself in the embarrassing position of inviting the Soviet to occupy this base during the I.G.Y. period in order to avoid an open dis-

pute . .".’’ he said. Senator Ernest Gruening (Democrat, Alaska) said he believed the treaty should not be ratified, but, in any case, he urged that action should be deferred until next year, when a new United States Administration had time to review it. Senator Engle noted that, while seven of the participants had made territorial claims to sectors of the frozen continent, the United States recognised none of them and had not put forward any claims of its own. “Now is the time to assert cur claim to 80 per cent, of this vast continent.” he said.

Australian Author Dead.—A noted Australian author, Edward Vivian Timms, died last night, aged 65. Mr Timms wrote many of Australia’s best-selling novels. Sydney, June 15.