Evening star., 1948-12-22
Stars, Men and Atoms
French Act to Establish
Claims to Anturcticu
First of Series of Annual Expeditions
Heads for Adele Land Base Survey


First of Series of Annual Expeditions
Heads for Adele Land Base Survey
By Thomas r. Henry
The first Of a proposed annual series Of
expeditions by which France expects to con-
firm her territorial claims to the so-called
French enclave" of the Antarctic Continent
now is entering the ice-flled southern ocean
west Of the 18Oth meridian.
The expedition consists of 10 men under the
leadership Of Paul E. Victor, head of last
summers French Greenland expedition. Its
ship is a converted United States Navy net
tender declared surplus after the war, and
purchased by the French government. 1t
is equipped with many Of the latest devices
Of science supplied by American manufac.
turers and scientific institutions for test un-
der the super rigid conditions of the Antarctic
winter night.
The objective is to establish during the
present Antarctic summer base camp on the
shore of Adele Land. This territory claimed
by France consists of approximately 135 miles
Of coastline between the 142d and 18th merid-
ians east and continues inland in a pie
shaped wedge theoretically as far as the
South Pole.
Colonization Status.
M. Victor and his companions will take adj
vantage of the next two months of essentially
24-hour daylight to make thorough survey
of the still largely unknown Adele coast
and set up their base camp on the ice.
There they will spend the next winter night
and, according to present plans, will be
relieved by a considerably larger expedition
next year.
During succeeding Antarctic summers it is
proposed to carry out annual requirements Of
men and supplies to establish at least q
theoretical status of permanent colonization.
This is one of the requirements for an indiS-
putable territorial claim. 1t is the plan being
used by Great Britains Falkland Islands
Dependencies government to stake down the
British claim to the Palmer Peninsula and by
Australia in the vast sector of East Antarctica
claimed by the commonwealth.
A territorial claim also requires accurate
mapping Of coastline and, as far as possible,
interior. This will be one of M. Victor's essen
tial jobs this year. The French claim to dis
covery of this part of the Antarctic coast Is
undsputed. 1t was the region sighted in l840
by Admiral Jules Dumont D'Urville. In COM
mand of little exploring fleet of two ships, the
corvettes Astrolabe and LIE Zelee D'Urville
sighted the ice-ramparted shore on December
20, 1840, and according to the version now
generally accepted, missed by less than one
day the glory of being the discoverer of the
mainland of the earth's seventh continent
On December 10 Capt. Charles Wilkes, COM
mander of an American exploring squadron,
had sighted land more than 300 miles to the
eastward The northern extension of the con-
tinent had been sighted 20 years before
whether by the American sealer Nathaniel
Palmer or the British sealer William Brans-
field still is in dispute. Only recently has the
Palmer, or Graham, Peninsula which juts far
northward toward South America been ac-
cepted by geographers as an integral part of
the continent itself.
Both Claims in Dispute
The claims to discovery of both Wilkes and
D'Urville long were in dispute. This is a region
of constant mirages where nobody is likely
to see anything and pictures which look like
coastline appear constantly in vivid greens
and silvers projected on the horizon. Only
after almost a century did the explorations
of Sir Douglas Mawson of Australia confirm
that land existed about where Wilkes said he
saw it, within reasonable limits of error con-
sidering Antarctic visibility. DUrville's re-
liability is little better established but the
French government admits frankly that his
description of the coast skirted by the Astro-
labe has little geographical standing. Neither
is 1t satisfied with Mawson's map. Flyers OF
Admiral Richard E. Byrd's 1947 expedition
encountered bad weather over most Of the area,
and little claim is made for the reliability OF
their observations.
DUrville, most learned of explorers, who a
few years earlier had gained fame by dis
covery of the armless Venus of Milo in
Greece. claimed the territory for France and
named it after his wife. Both he and she were
killed in one Of Frances first railroad wrecks
a year later. The French wedge lies within
territory claimed in general by Australia.
France, however, generally has assumed that
its territorial rights were beyond dispute.
Until the First World War France took a
leading part in Antarctic exploration but failed
to land parties on Adele Land. 1t appears to
be a country of high snow-covered hills which
increase in altitude inland and descend with
steep icy slopes to the sea. At one point the
coast is blocked by what appears to be great
ice shelf, similar to the Ross and Shackleton
shelves. This is extremely rough and its dis
coverer, Sir Douglas Mawson, believed it might
be an enormous region of stranded icebergs
consolidated with pack ice which drifts west
ward under the influence of the prevailing
current.
Program Sanctioned
NJ Victor's expedition has the official sanc-
ton of the French cabinet and distinguished
committee of the French Academy headed
by Prince Louis de Broglie, one of the worlds
foremost physicists, has outlined the scientific
program Numerous observations of gravity.
magnetism, auroral phenomena and mete-
orology are projected
The expedition has received numerous do
nations of equipment from the United States.
For the first time in Antarctic history, for
example, the explorers will have the bene-
fit of sunlit quarters during the winter nights,
due to special sun spectra lights without any
heat waves which can be operated on very
little current. These have just been donated
by the Westinghouse Corp. For the gravity
studies special seismographic equipment has
been donated.
American representative of the expedition Is
- of fho n