Camas Prairie chronicle. [volume] (Cottonwood, Idaho) 1901-1917, 1909-09-17
RAISES A QUESTION
PEARYS DISPATCH TELLING
OF NORTH POLE CONQUEST.
Doubted by Many if United States Can
Claim Possession by His Act-Atti-
tude of State Department at Present
Is That North Pole Belongs to No
Nation, Even by Discovery.

When Commander Robert E. Peary
by wireless and cable recently
to the state department that he had
hosted the Stars and Stripes on the
north pole and had formally taken pos
session of that region and adjacent ter
ritory for and in the name of the presi-
dent and the United States Of Amer
lea he raised question which is bound
to occasion controversy among geog-
scientists and statesmen.
The state department, with it's Gus
tomary caution, declined to express an
official opinion upon the matter. 1t
has become subject for future deter
mination-one upon which the decision
may have to be rendered later in case
of an international dispute.
Belongs to No Nation.
Unofically, however, it can be
stated that the attitude of the depart
ment at present is that the north
pole can belong to no one nation and
that not even the first man who dis
covered it, whether he be Cook or
Peary, can lay claim to it or pass title
on it to any country whatever.
This theory is based upon the fact
that, outside of the former habit of
discoveries of claiming for their coun-
try islands of the sea which had not
yet floated any flag, habit which has
fallen into disuse because no discover
les are now made, there are no recog-
nized principles governing claim to
newfound territory
Greenland an Island.
One of these relates to the discovery
of lands which are continuation of
territory already under certain SOW,
ereignty. Thus if either Cook or Peary
had found lands extending the boun-
daries of Greenland to the north, the
claim of Denmark to the new find
would be recognized But by the voy
ages and explorations of Captain
Amundsen, who cireumnavigated it
Greenland has already been proven to
be an island, so that the Danish claim
has no foundation.
The other basis of claim, and the
one upon which Canada relies appar
emily, is the Hinterland, which is mere
ly clam to all territory back OF
acknowledged possessions up to the
point where it meets another iurisdic
ton. There are many cases of this
kind in Africa. But in the case of thu
north pole in all of the Hinterlands'
of the northern nations all meridian
converge. Therefore the north poll
is merely a boundary point between
the possessions of the nations, and Xix,
the boundary point between two piece
of property, belongs to no one.
Bounded by Frozen Ocean.
A further objection raised in SOM
quarters is that of the treaty between
Russia and the United States by whicl
this country purchased Alaska. 1t wa
expressly stated that the cession wa
bounded on the north by the "frozel
ocean, That prevents the Unite,
States from claiming any "Hinte1
land" to Alaska.
On the other hand, Hannis Taylor
recognized as an eminent lawyer an
jurist and who was formerly Unite
States minister to Spain, holds that tn
right of jurisdiction and ownershi
go with the right of discovery i
the case of new-found lands. H
claims that even if the north pole j
not situated upon land, but upon a
immovable ice field, the discoverer ha
a right to claim it for his country.