ETHICS OF EXPLORATION.

Evening Post, Volume LXXVIII, Issue 59, 7 September 1909, Page 6

ETHICS OF EXPLORATION.

Dr. Cook is, as our telegrams to-day show, even more definitely than earlier messages, the subject of criticism in two directions. There are those who question the accuracy of his observations and consequently the validity of his discovery, and to this point we have already given some attention, and need only mention the latest objection, recorded to-day, that the effects of refraction ■would probably vitiate the astronomical observations. To no objection of this kind can a single observer make so convincing or conclusive a reply as a company of scientific men, who can' fulfil the double end of checking caen other's observations and calculations on the spot, and supplementing their manuscript records with personal corroboration. However success may justify a bold single-handed experiment, its wisdom may be questioned on this account alone, and the explorer's admission that his unique exploit was the result of a sudden impulse removes the enterprise from the category of those undertaken as the outcome of patient thougnt aud matured judgment. But objection has been also taken on entirely different ground— that oi ethics. In work in which tho whole world has an interest, it has been found expedient for many reasons to arrive at understandings regarding spheres of influence! In the Antarctic region these understandings are fairly well defined. The region has been quartered, and the advantages, of such a «o-operativ© plan are manifest. Britain keeps to ,the bbcUqu ah« kae, so to

speak, made her own by the discoveriea of Sir James Ross, whose exploring ships are commemorated still in the names of the volcanos Erebus and Terror. By this concentration Britain' nas followed up her earlier discoveries till Shackleton planted his flag witnin a nundred miles of the Pole, lfc is not alleged that Cook has broken any international understanding, but he is accused of something which some of his countrymen consider worse. In full knowledge that the United States had in progress a costly expedition under Commander Peary, with very complete equipment for exploration, in order to follow up previous disco verier, he chose to go in quietly "on his own" and skim the cream of the expedition, employing— -unkindesb cut of all — Peary's trained Eskimos and dogs in his private expedition. This, it is suggested, was neither fair to his country nor loyal to his former chief. It will bt> for the doctor to present his own case. Maybe some international agreement may yet be drafted; there must certainly ba an ethical principle in the matter. It would be extremely difficult to define. Perhaps it had better remain unwritten, and be left, as at present, to the honour of explorers. '