14. ANTARCTICA

Antarctica’s international boundaries may be distinguished from the international boundaries of other continents in fi ve ways. First, all the claimed boundaries coincide with meridians that meet at the South Pole (Figure 14.1). Second, there are no bilateral agreements dealing with national claims to the continent. However, Australia, Britain, France, New Zealand and Norway have ensured that their adjoining claims are conterminous. Third none of the boundaries in Antarctica have been demarcated. Fourth, none of the countries that claim terri- tory enforce any restrictions on the movements of people or goods at the limits of their territory. The issue of sovereignty was placed in abeyance by Article 4 of the Antarctic Treaty. 1. Nothing contained in the present Treaty shall be interpreted as: (a) a renunciation by any Contracting Party of previously asserted rights or claims to territorial sovereignty in Antarctica; (b) a renunciation or diminution by any Contracting Party of any basis of claim to territorial sovereignty in Antarctica which it may have whether as a result of its activities or those of its nationals in Antarctica, or otherwise; (c) prejudicing the position of any Contracting Party as regards its recogni- tion or non-recognition of any other State’s rights of or claim or basis of claim to territorial sovereignty in Antarctica. 2. No acts or activities taking place while the present Treaty is in force shall constitute a basis for asserting, supporting or denying a claim to territorial sovereignty in Antarctica or create any rights of sovereignty in Antarctica. No new claim, or enlargement of an existing claim to territorial sovereignty in Antarctica shall be asserted while the present treaty is in force. (Lovering and Prescott, 1979, 203) Finally, the political boundaries of Antarctica are distinct because they were all proclaimed in the 20th century. 384 Chapter 14

BRITISH CLAIMS

On 23 June 1843 British authorities issued details of the arrangements for the government of the Falkland Islands and their Dependencies (International Court of Justice, 1956, 41). This proclamation did not defi ne the extent of the Dependen- cies, nor did subsequent proclamations, governors’ commissions or laws clarify this question in the period before 1907. However, from 1887 the Colonial Offi ce Yearbook referred to South Georgia as part of the Dependencies. In the last decade of the 19th century there was a marked increase in voyages to Antarctic seas for purposes of scientifi c research and the capture of whales and seals. This activity encouraged the British authorities to set out the limits of the Dependencies in Letters Patent dated 21 July 1908. Whereas the group of islands known as South Georgia, the South Orkneys, the South Shetlands. The Sandwich Islands and the territory known as Graham’s Land, situated in the South Atlantic Ocean to the south of the 50th parallel of south latitude, and lying between the 20th and 80th degrees of west longitude, are part of our Dominions, and it is expedient that provision should be made for their government as Dependencies of our said Colony of the Falkland Islands . . . (Polar Record, 1948, 241) According to British sources, South Georgia was discovered, or rediscovered by Captain James Cook on 17 January 1775. Having named them in honour of the King and claimed them for Britain, he sailed eastwards and two weeks later discovered the South Sandwich islands that were named for the First Lord of the Admiralty and also claimed for Britain. The South Shetland Islands were discovered by Captain William Smith on 18 February 1819. He claimed them for Britain in October of that year when he called them New South Britain. Graham Land was discovered by Captain Edward Bransfi eld, in company with Smith, on 30 January 1820. Some American scholars, including Hobbs (1939, 1941) and Martin (1938, 1940), assert that Captain Nathaniel Palmer fi rst sighted the mainland of Antarctica, but their evidence is shown to be dubious by Gould (1941) and Hinks (1939, 1940, 1941). According to British sources Captain George Powell discovered the South Orkney Islands on 6 December 1821, and he claimed them the following day when he landed on the island to which he gave the name Coronation. The British authorities must have been embarrassed to discover that the limits set out in the 1908 Proclamation included the southern tip of South America. There had been no intention to claim that area. To remove uncertainty the boundaries of the British claim were amended on 28 March 1917. The Dependencies of Our said Colony shall be deemed to include and to have included all islands and territories whatsoever between the 20th degree of west longitude and the 50th degree of west longitude which are