Antarctic research is not for Canada

Press, Volume CXII, Issue 32848, 23 February 1972, Page 16

Antarctic research is not for Canada

Canada has no intention of carrying out any future research in the Antarctic, said Mr A. Longair, an official of the Defence Research Board of Canada, in Christchurch yesterday.

Mr Longair was in Christchurch to visit the United States Navy Antarctic support force headquarters for a briefing on American research and support activities in Antarctica. He is with the party travelling through New Zealand with the Canadian Chief of Defence Staff (General F. R. Sharp). “With all the work we are doing in the Arctic, there is no time to come down here to work as well,” Mr Longair said. “The community of people interested in the polar regions is quite small, really, and the reason for my visit to Christchurch is more of an informal interchange of information.”

Canada’s Defence Research Board had been Interested in the Arctic since 1947. A lot of its work there had been in studying how the military could best operate in such cold climates should they ever be called on to do so, said Mr Longair. Mr Longair was briefed

yesterday afternoon on Antarctic operations by a Navy staff officer (Commander K. B. Goodman), the National Science Foundation representative in Christchurch (Mr W. Seelig), and the superintendent of the Antarctic Division of the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research (Mr R. B. Thomson). Christchurch has a particular interest for Mr Longair. One of his friends is the chief surgeon at the Christchurch Hospital (Mr H. E. Denham). “We have not met for 32 years, but when I return to Christchurch next month after the official party has visited Australia, we will,” Mr Longair said. “Thirty-two years ago, Mr Denham was an intern at the Royal Masonic Hospital in London while I was working for the National Physical Laboratory,” he said. A Scotsman, Mr Longair has lived in Canada since 1953.