The Franklin Times PUBLISHED EVERY MONDAY, WEDNESDAY AND FRIDAY AFTERNOON MONDAY, APRIL 8, 1929. ANTARCTICA.

Franklin Times, Volume XIX, Issue 40, 8 April 1929, Page 4

The Franklin Times PUBLISHED EVERY MONDAY, WEDNESDAY AND FRIDAY AFTERNOON

MONDAY, APRIL 8, 1929. ANTARCTICA.

Office and Works: ROULSTON STREET, PUKEKOHE. P.O. Box 14. Phone No. 2. Night Phone, No. 323. "We nothing extenuate, nor aught set down in malice."

THE Monroe Doctrine seems to be in the opinion'of all good Americans an elastic contrivance capable of stretching out to any degree and in any direction. That it had its uses in the pasr in preventing European States scrambling for slices of South America may •'be conceded, but the present attempt ! to make it include the Antarctic reJ gions, or at any rate such portions of , them as lie in the Western Hemisphere J seems to be stretching it perilously near the breaking point. •To press 1 shadowy claims of sovereignity over j British discoveries at this hour of the I day raises the question as to why the 1 pretended rights have been waived for so long. The Monroe Doctrine was evolved | with' the full agreement of Great Bri- ' tain, and for three generations at least that it was allowed to exist at all was ' due entirely to Britain's sea-power. The United States had no power what--1 ever to prevent its infringement . by even a second-rate naval power. Since President Monroe ennunciatcd the docJ trine 125 years ago, Great Britain has | loyally respected it. But it is absurd , to claim that it was ever intended to 1 cover anything more than the twj J Americas, for that it was intended to ; anything further than preventing forI eign countries annexing any portions of Mexico or South America. Britain undertook to safe-guard the South American Governments from agression, and upon her, in the last resort, rested the whole weight of the Monroe Doctrine. It is doubtful whether Antarctica has i much value for anyone, but the prin- ! c'plc embodied in this claim of America to territorial soverignity is what counts. So far-reaching a claim has never been made since Spain claimed

the whole of the New World, with at least as great a show of'right . One ' can scarcely imagine the United States ; will follow it up to its logical conclu- ! sion, but there have not been absent signs that the wealth made by America's abstention from taking part in the Great War till it was half over has nearly turned the heads of many of its rulers. The arrogance of the "newly rich," especially if these riches have been gained by profiteering, is prover- : bial, and it is quite on the cards that | this -preposterous attempt may be pushed to a length endangering the good relations between the Empire and the Great Republic. It is unfortunate it should ever have been made, and will prove still more unfortunate if it should lead to a serious dispute between the two great English-speaking -peoples upon whom the stability of modern civilisation, already shaken to its foundations by the war, appear to depend. It is sincerely to be hoped that moderation and good sense will lead, as they have so often done in the past, to an amicable adjustment of this ! latest dispute. ;