ANTARCTIC CONTINENT.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXV, Issue 20075, 12 October 1928, Page 15

ANTARCTIC CONTINENT.

TERRITORIAL AUTHORITY

THE QUESTION OF CLAIMS

[from our own correspondent.] NEW YORK. September 19

Tf important discoveries are made by Commander Byrd in tho Antarctic it ia understood, according to press despatches from London, that tho question of territorial claims of certain nations on (he Antarctic continent will come to* a head.. The Prime Minister of Australia, Hon. Stanley M. Bruce, raised tho question of British rights in the Antarctic at the last Imperial Conference. A special committee was appointed to investigate..

Sir Douglas Mawson, tlio famous explorer, has, it is understood, complained that Australia has been somewhat negligent of British rights in tho Antarctic. l|o stated that, after tho war Great Britain was anxious thai Australia should tako control of that parti of tho Polar territory explored by Mawson's expedition, but that, as nothing had been done, Fiance had laid claim to Adele Land. Sir Douglas contends that Adelo Land is very valuable, economically, and that Boss Sea, now administered, with its contiguous land territory, by New Zealand, is teeming with edible fish, as well as whales, and may become one of the world's greater sources of fish supply. Great Britain's attitude, now, as in the. past, is that territorial rights are only discussed when they arise. Hie attitude of the Royal Geographical Society is that claim to territory by right of discovery is debatable. This has, too, been the attitude of the United States Government. While Franco challenges British authority over Adelo Land, observers are recalling tho Act of Settlement of 1887, passed by tho Hon so of Commons, as giving the necessary machinery to proclaim British sovereignty over the whole of the Antarctic continent. Only in regard to the Boss Sea and tho Falkland Islands has this sovereignty been promulgated arid administered.