WORK IN ANTARCTIC

Evening Post, Volume CXXXVIII, Issue 136, 6 December 1944, Page 5

WORK IN ANTARCTIC

OBJECTS OF EXPEDITION

CANBERRA, December 5,

The British research which is now being conducted in the Antarctic may have important bearings -on the problems of world food supplies and communications after the war. The party which has been in the Falkland Islands dependency since April has now been joined by a second expedition of British scientists. It is officially explained here that meteorological stations in Grahamiand and the South Shetlands will provide some of the missing links needed for accurate forecasting of the weather in Australia, New. Zealand, southern South America, and South Africa. This information will be vital for assuring •the world food supplies from the Southern Hemisphere as well as for the operation of airlines. The British expedition is also collecting data on whales. While the Allied Governments concerned, includ- j ing New Zealand, recognise the j urgency of the speedy post-war replenishment of the world's stocks of oils and fats, they agreed- at a conference held in London in February to restrict the whale catch in the first year after the war to 64 per cent of the 1938-39 figure. The object is to preserve the whale species. In 1933-39 whaling in the Antarctic produced about 500.000 barrels of oil, valued at £15,000,000. .