DISPUTED BY GERMANY

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 19885, 11 March 1939, Page 5

DISPUTED BY GERMANY

CLAIMS IN ANTARCTIC

NORW EG lAN EXPLORERS (Reed. March 11, 9 a.m.) BERLIN, March 10. The Ofllcial News Agency, reporting on Norwegian claims to sovereignty over certain Antarctic territories, declares that sovereignty over this area is now claimed by Germany. The agency says that as far as can be seen from documents iti Germany, these Norwegian explorers have not even Down over, let alone trodden on. the territory which, it is now discovered, was fully explored by a German expedition.

A message from Oslo, published in January, said: A measure introduced in the Norwegian Slate Council claims sovereignty over Antarctic continental territory, stretching from the Falkland Islands, to Australia’s Antarctic dependencies. The Foreign Minister explained that the sector concerned was explored and mapped exclusively by Norwegian expeditions. The area claimed was most important for Norwegian whaling, but it was not intended to restrict the whaling rights ot other countries. DISCOVERY BY GERMAN (Reed. March 11. 9 n.m.) BERLIN, .March 9. Captain Paul Ritschcr, operating by aeroplane, claims the discovery of 135,000 square miles of an Antarctic continent between 5 degrees west and 15 degrees east longitude and extending inland to 5 degrees south latitude, including mountain ranges and a high central Polar massif.