FUTURE OF ANTARCTICA

Otago Daily Times, Issue 27413, 12 June 1950, Page 5

FUTURE OF ANTARCTICA

Soviet Shows Renewed Interest NOTE TO BRITAIN AND THE DOMINIONS ltec. 10.30 p.m. LONDON, June 10. Russia has told the Governments of New Zealand, Australia, Britain, United States, France, Norway and Argentina that she could not agree to questions concerning the Antarctic to be decided without her participation. Russia sent a Note to this effect to each Government on June 7, according to a Moscow radio message. The radio quoted the Note as saying that there had been negotiations since the autumn of 1948 on the “ regime in the Antarctic ” between the United - States and these countries. The Antarctic question should be considered on an international plane. “Taking into consideration the lawful interests of all interested States,” Russia could * not accept as lawful any decision on the regime of the Antarctic taken without her participation. The Note said that Russia was prepared to examine any proposal of interested States on the procedure for discussions as well as the character of the Antarctic regime.

A Washington message says the United States does not at present intend to make any new proposal for international talks on the future of Antarctica, official sources said today. They said the State Department, in response to a Russian memorandum of yesterday, probably would outline its already well-known view that the South Polar region should fall under the jurisdiction of an international body made up of interested Governments. Officials would not say, however. whether the United States was prepared to admit the validity of the Russian claim to an interest in the area. The Russians yesterday pointed to the exploration of the area by Bellingshausen and Lazarev from 1819 to 1821, which, according to the Russian Note, proved the “falseness of the then accepted opinion that there was no land mass beyond the Antarctic itself.” , , The subject of the future status of the area was raised nearly two years ago by the United States in informal discussions with Argentina, Chile, France, Australia, New Zealand, Norway, .'and the United Kingdom. It urged that a solution should be such as to promote scientific investigation and research in the area, and suggested some sort of international control. The suggestion met with a negative response from the other Governments. Argentina flatly rejected it. Chile raised objections tantamount to rejection, and Britain was content to welcome Washington’s initiative in the matter. Australia and France, with long standing claims to a large slice of Antarctica, were reluctant to forgo their rights. The United States has never recognised the claims of any foreign Governments to territorial rights in the area, and although it has done probably more exploration there than any other country in the present century, it has never claimed any for itself. ; American officials are inclined to discount the importance of the area as not being of any great future strategic value, and they regard the reports that vast mineral deposits occur there as purely speculative. They see its chief value as a laboratory for meteorological and other scientific research. The Soviet’s late manifestation of official interest in the Antarctic, therefore, is regarded as being prompted largely by considerations of prestige.