THE ANTARCTIC: Thaw over the Ice

In May 1958, as the final months of the International Geophysical Year drew near, President Eisenhower sent to eleven other nations* an invitation that was also a warning. Along with the U.S., the eleven had all sponsored IGY research projects in the Antarctic, and seven of them had longstanding territorial claims upon the vast (5,500,000 sq. mi.) continent. Without some kind of international agreement, wrote the President, the Antarctic might well become a dangerous source of “political rivalries.” Last week, after a series of secret preliminary meetings, the world’s first Antarctic conference opened in Washington—and paradoxically enough, the international climate had seldom seemed so warm.

One reason for the rare unanimity was general awareness that Antarctic territorial claims have become hopelessly muddled: three out of the four active Soviet IGY bases are in Australian-claimed territory, and the peninsula claimed by the British under the name Graham Land is O’Higgins Land to the Chileans, and San Martin Land to the Argentines. More important yet was the fact that for once the U.S. and Russia (neither of which recognizes any Antarctic territorial claims) were in thorough agreement; genially, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Vasily Kuznetsov echoed Secretary of State Herter’s recommendation that “Antarctica should not become an object of political conflict and should be open for the conduct of scientific investigations.” At week’s end it seemed a foregone conclusion that the twelve nations meeting in Washington would wind up by signing a treaty embodying the two “high principles” of the original Eisenhower invitation: 1) a temporary freeze on the political status quo in Antarctica, and 2) an agreement to seal off the continent from any future war, hot or cold.

*Argentina, Australia, Belgium, Britain, Chile, France, Japan, New Zealand, Norway, Russia, South Africa.