UNCERTAIN BASIS

Dominion, Volume 28, Issue 58, 1 December 1934, Page 9

UNCERTAIN BASIS

Claims to Territory in Antarctica

BYRD’S DISCOVERIES

Dominion Special Service.

Christchurch, November 30.

In a recent wireless hnessage from Little America, announcing Admiral Byrd’s discovery that the strait which had been supposed to divide the Antarctic continent ' did not exist, it was reported that Admiral Byrd had claimed for the United States of America the territory over which he 'had flown, and had advised President Roosevelt that the discovery had added approximately 200,000 square miles 'to United States possessions. Mr. A. C. Brassington, lecturer in International 'Law at Canterbury College, said yesterday that the claim was based on right of discovery, and that it was not usual for such claims to 'be disputed by nations unless any real interests were involved. There were, however, certain aspects 'of claims by America to territory in the Antarctic which were of some interest. Mr Brassington said that 'whether a claim to territory based on discovery merely by flying over it would ever be admitted by a irival nation would depend on the circumstances. The doctrine of international law regarding claims based on discovery had been formulated 'long before the invention ot aeroplanes, and to be effective such, claims should be followed by; occupation and acts of ownership such as colonisation. Here 'again a diftculty arose owing to the impossibility of occupying, much less of colonising, the Antarctic regions. The Monroe Doctrine. A special claim on behalf of America to rights of sovereignty in Antarctica had been put forward some lears ago by some writers in America. This was grounded on the wording of a ■sentence in the Monroe Doctrine, which, in the Trbaty of Versailles, was formally recognised by the British Government as a. regional understanding. The sentence reads as follows: “We declare that we should consider any attempt on the part of foreign Powers to extend their system to any portion of this hemisphere as, dangetcus to our peace and safety.” The word “hemisphere” was taken by the American writers to include most of the explored portion of Antarctica. “The recognition of the doctrine as a regional understanding,” said Mr. Brassington, “would not, however, carry with it any recognition of the somewhat fantastic claim based on a single word.” Byrd’s Earlier Discoveries.

When Admiral Byrd made his official report, to the United States Navy Department in June, 1929, claiming rhe area now known as Marie Byrd Land, an American writer stated that America might reasonably set up a claim to a section of the Antarctic, and asserted that if, the requirement to occupy the territory were admitted, it would deny not only the claims made by Admiral Byrd but also the accepted British claims to a large part of Antarctica. Byrd himself made t public statement in America a year later that he had claimed 125.000 square miles of land which his expedition had discovered. The British bad claimed lauds which had not been settled. but he thought that in regard to international law the Antarctic might be different in status from the rest of the world where settlement was required. He could not say whether the land claimed by the United States had any value, though there was every reason to believe that there were enormous deposits of coal in those regions. A month after the publication of

this statement, a resolution was introduced in the United States Senate to authorise the Secretary of State to claim the Antarctic lands claimed by Rear-Admiral Byrd and other American explorers. It was stated in support of the resolution that Great Britain had laid claims to much of Antarctica, though the regions claimed included “two areas discovered by American naval officers as early as 1820 and 1840.” Reference was made in the Senate to a “sweeping claim made by Great Britain in 1926, when Australia, at the Imperial Conference, made claims to large areas in the Antarctic.” Attitude of Great Britain. A British note to the United States in 1928 was stated in a cablegram to imply that Britain claimed sovereignty over virtually the whole of the 5,000,000 square miles of Antarctica, and mention was made at that time of the proclamation made in 1926, at the suggestion of Australia, that the British title existed to the coastland outside the Falkland Island dependencies, Emlerby Land. Kemp Land, Mary Laud. King George the Fifth Land, Oates Land, and an area to the west of Adelie Land. At a meeting of the Antarctica Committee of the Imperial Conference of 1930. the British Government offered Australia the custody of the areas in the Antarctic discovered by Scott and Shackleton. No claims arising from the Byrd expeditions were mentioned at the conference. The position in respect of the conflicting claims seems to be summed up in a statement published in England at the time of the 1930 Imperial Conference: “Complications appear to arise in connection with tlie various areas in question, because sovereignty cannot be established without actual occupation immediately following discovery. and what, constitutes occupation seems to be indefinite.”