IN ANTARCTICA.

Waikato Times, Volume 105, Issue 17751, 1 July 1929, Page 7

IN ANTARCTICA.

BYRD’S DISCOVERIES.

UNITED STATES’ CLAIMS. AMERICAN SOVEREIGNTY. (By Telegraph—Press Assn.—Copyright.) (Australian Press Association.) WASHINGTON, June' 29. Commander Byrd submitted a report to the Navy Department from Little America (Antarctica) to-day in which he says his expedition has examined 20,000 square miles of a hitherto unknown area there. The report notes the discovery and survey of the Rockefeller mountain range in January and February. It says:— “These mountains consist of a group of scattered low-lying snowswathed peaks and ridges extending In an arc from latitude 78 degrees 14 minutes south, longitude 155 degrees 18 minutes west, curving thence toward the east as far as longitude 153 degrees 25 minutes west, and thence northward, terminating at latitude 77 degrees 47 minutes west. “The mountains are largely composed of granite, and a precursory examination suggests that they are of the pre-Cambrian age, and therefore not allied with the mountains which lie west of the Ross Sea Barrier, but are probably of the same origin as the Alexandra Mountains.”

Commander Byrd then describes other mountain ranges that were visible. “The land east of the 150th meridian, which we have named Marie Byrd Land, we have claimed for the United States. It is thought this is probably a vast land.” Commander Byrd expresses his intention of surveying that mountain range. A message from New York says Mr Henry Kitteridge Norton, wellknown publicist, writing in the New York Times, says:—“The United States might reasonably set up a claim to a section of the Antarctic. What is known as Wilkes Land is, like the British claims, more or less indefinite in extent.” The writer then outlines the opinion of Mr C. E. Hughes, voiced when he was Secretary of State in 1924, that possession does not support a valid claim to sovereignty unless'a discovery is followed by the actual settlement of the discovered country. He concludes: “While this position may be considered acquiescent in that it sets up no claim to American sovereignty on the Antarctic continent, it should not be overlooked that its reasoning would deny Britain’s claims to a large part of this area."