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People living in a world of their own

By

JOY ASCHENBACH,

National

Geographic News Service

Believe it or not, a file exists at the State Department in Washington filled with all kinds of curious documents about the rise and fall of countries that never existed. It is kept in officiallooking legal-size folders, and a few of its pages are even stamped Classified. “I call it the ‘Mythical Kingdom, Kooky Kings, and Pretending Princes’ file,” says George J. Demko, director of the Office of the Geographer, which has maintained this wonderful file for 40 years. More seriously, it has been labelled “Ephemeral States.”

The newest entry is a letter dated August 29, 1986, from a citizen of the United Kingdom of Coralland seeking to register as a foreign agent in the United States. Others have come from the King of the Mosquito Shore and Nation (on the east coast of Central America) and the Secretary of State of the Republic of Minerva — Land of the Rising Atoll (on coral reefs in the South Pacific). The file is very real even if the kingdoms are not. It contains letters of credentials, declarations, affidavits, and maps from persons claiming to have started their own countries. And it includes memos from a variety of United States Government agen-

cies inquiring about their legitimacy: Is there such a place? In most cases, these would-be rulers have declared dominion over land that actually exists, usually tiny, isolated islands, sometimes under several feet of water.

Like real countries, some of these kingdoms have proclaimed declarations of independence, adopted constitutions, sought diplomatic recognition, sent out special envoys, displayed coats-of-arms, minted coins, and issued stamps, passports and visas.

The geographer’s office officially maintains a file on them because it is responsible for keeping track of the sovereignty status of all nations. “We have to know what and where everything is in the world,” Demko says. “The only problem with this file is that once you open it, you get fascinated by it,” he says, opening it. “This is fun.” Inside, for instance, there is a lengthy lawsuit filed in the Court of Special Cases of the Republic of Morac-Songhrati-Meads in 1985 against an array of prominent United States officials, government agencies, and companies. It seeks at least $5O billion in damages for infringement, unfair competition, harassment, and sabotage. Morac-Songhrati-Meads, which formerly called itself the Kingdom of Humanity, has claimed islands — and oil rights — in the strategically situated Spratly chain in the South China Sea. But so have China, Vietnam, and the Philippines. Morton F. Meads, an American businessman, has contended his claim is the legitimate one because he is a descendant of the sea captain who discovered the islands in the 1870 s while sailing under the British flag. Meads established his constitutional monarchy more than 30 years ago, locating its capital on Meads Island and choosing Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony as its national anthem.

When Australia imposed a wheat quota that Leonard George Gasley could not live with, he turned his 18,500-acre

Western Australia farm into the Hutt River Province (later Kingdom) and proclaimed himself Prince. Hutt River formally seceded on April 21, 1970, a day that became its “national” holiday. A stone secession monument permanently marks the event The kingdom, population 35, published a 52-page colour booklet about itself titled “The Birth of a Principality.” Australia refuses to recognise its independent status. To give Maori people, “a race that is speeding to oblivion,” a place “to call their own, their rightful place in the sun,” King and Absolute Ruler Mitchara Heatara signed a declaration of independence in 1985 establishing the Maori Kingdom of Tetiti Islands in the South Pacific. His special envoy offered the United States a long-term lease on one island, situated about 500 miles off the New Zealand coast.”

“We regret to inform you that we cannot locate Furstentum Castellania,” says a 1984 State Department letter in the file. “We can assure you that the United States Government does not have diplomatic relations with this ephemeral state.” The Principality of Castellania had been created by a group of disenchanted Australians in 1974. Its location, somewhere in the South Pacific, was kept secret. According to one of its leaders, “Castellania is more a state of mind.”

Thinking globally, two selfstyled rulers served notice on Secretary of State Henry Kissinger in 1975 of their rights as “sole owners of all of the ocean floor and sealand.” Others, such as the Admiral of Oceanus, have made similar sweeping claims. A British couple created their own half-acre “island nation” in the North Sea by taking over a Second World War radar-and-gun platform in 1966. They christened it Sealand.

One or two new mythical kingdoms pop up each year, Mr Demko says. The one that originally created the file was Atlantis, born on a group of islands off Ecuador in 1933.

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Permanent link to this item

https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/CHP19861220.2.100.5

Bibliographic details

Press, 20 December 1986, Page 22

Word Count
810

People living in a world of their own Press, 20 December 1986, Page 22

People living in a world of their own Press, 20 December 1986, Page 22