The mirror., 1919-01-16
LAND where high crimes
an d misdemeanors are
perfectly legal, or at least
ORC not unlawful will he

USMSN q q q mlSQom0duOFS arc
V9s@NGN perfectly legal, or at least
ugWg!D are not unlawful, will be
one of the problems that will arise
to perplex the peace conference
which will hand down a decision
on the late unpleasantness. This
land is Spitzbergen, and acts which
are punishable by death or impris-
onment elsewhere in the world are
not unlawful because there is no
law.
Spitzbergen is, in the truest
sense of the word, 'No Mans
Land" not metaphorically so as
was the deadly strip between the
front line trenches in France. but
literally what Robert Lansing,
Secretary of State, designated as
terra nullius, ''no mans land,
an international freak.
This curiosity among the nations
of the earth is not some tiny islet
in an isolated corner of remote
seas, but an island, or rather group
of islands, of vast extent, embrac-
ing $4,000 square miles. Spitz-
bergen is 400 miles north of Nor
way, and is about as desolate a
place as can be found on the earth's
surface. In the few sunny days Of
midsummer little grass appears
in the sheltered hooks, but for the
greater part of the year the Arctic
winter reigns supreme.
1t would seem that a peace con-
ference that has to settle the myriad
questions growing out of the war
would devote precious little time
to this group of ice- e-covered islands
in the Arctic ocean, but when the
diplomats embark upon the ques.
tion of their disposition they will
have set sail on an uncharted sea
of international law, for the prob
lem of Spitzbergen is without pre-
cedent, and without parallel in the
history of the world.
Germany, before she went out
of the business of apportioning the
world to suit herself, sought 10
steal march on the rest of the
nations by inserting clause in the
now defunct Brest .Litovsk Treaty
dividing the control of Spitzbergen
between Germany and Russia, in
other words giving it to Germany.
When this clause came to light,
there was great indignation in
England over this act of German
presumption. For, until the sign
ing of the Brest-Litovsk Treaty
Deither Germany nor Russia had
ever put forth any claim to Spitz-
bergen. Neither had England for
that matter, nor any other nation.
Over Spitzbergen's bleak wastes
no flag has ever waved.
The remarkable history of Spitz-
bergen began when the islands
were discovered in 1896 by William
Barents, the Dutch explorer. The
islands were covered with snow
and ice, and no nation considered
it worth while to lay claim to such
worthless territory, So, while
visited occasionally by whalers.
they have remained ownerless
through four centuries, while the
powers of the earth have been
scrambling for colonies in fairer
lands. But if Spitzbergen is so
worthless as to remain unclaimed
through all the intervening CEN
turies since Barents entered its
harbor, why should the peace con-
ference with its manifold troubles
be called upon to add this remote
one to its list9 The answer is that
it has been found that, nesting
under Spitzbergen's thick blanket
of snow and ice, are great deposits
of coal, iron, gypsum, marble and
oil-bearing rock.
An American company began
the development of coal mines in
Spitzbergen about 1900. Other