BRITISH ANTARCTIC CLAIMS

Taranaki Daily News, 7 August 1930, Page 13

BRITISH ANTARCTIC CLAIMS

AMERICAN GEOGRAPHER’S VIEWS. By Telegraph—Press Assn. —Copyright. New York, Aug. 5. Many of Britain’s claims in the Antarctic, particularly in the Falkland Islands Dependencies .and the Ross Dependency, are challengable on the basis of the right of discovery, Mrs. Laura Martin, geologist and geographer, of Washington, told members of the Institute of Polities which is now meeting at Williamstown (Mass). She said that Britain asserted dominion over several Polar regions extending beyond the parts discovered by Englishmen. She cited Wilkesland, part of the segment discovered by Lieutenant Wilkes, of the United States Navy, in 1840, although explored more fully by the Australian expedition in 1911-12. If Britain should project these claims to the pole, as it has done in the Falkland and Ross Dependencies, it could be seen that altogether it would claim nearly three-fifths of the continent, or three million of five million square miles.