ANTARCTIC INVASION.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LIX, Issue 193, 17 July 1939, Page 8

ANTARCTIC INVASION.

BYRD’S RACE TO BEAT GERAIANS. NEW YORK, July 14. Rear-Admiral R. E. Byrd to-day referred to his forthcoming expedition as a “race to prevent the invasion of the Antarctic by foreign Powers.” He declined to elaborate, but it is understood he was referring chiefly to the report that Germany was sending an aircraft-carrier this summer to map the region between Little Amercia and Palmer Land. Rear-Admiral Bvrd revealed that his bases will be Little America and Palmerland. with a small base half-way between. Twenty-two men with a ’plane will be installed at each base. The expedition is to leave Boston before October 1 and is returning in May. 1941, and will comprise three ships,’l6o men, 200 dogs, three aeroplanes, two army tanks, and a snow “cruiser.” The personnel mainly will he of experts from various military services, and Government departments.

The New York Times, in an editorial, points out that if Rear-Admiral Bvrd claims all the land east of the 180th meridian, as planned, he will enclose two-fifths of the British claimed Ross Sea Dependency, and adds that as nothing valuable yet has been discovered in this ’area Britain is unlikely to raise any serious objections.