426 HUDSON HONORED IN NEW YORK 



While the claims of the rivals were being debated, by the average citizen, 

 students of international law took up with vigor the question of ownership 

 of the north pole. 



A prominent official at Washington declared that the land belonged to Dr. 

 Cook and to nobody else, and added that the government was unwilling and 

 also unable to maintain its claim. 



The voice of international law has to be heard on what may prove a vexed 

 problem. Either Russia or Canada might claim the country (if country there 

 be) lying on the confines of their respective dominions. 



Denmark, as possessor of Greenland, might prefer claims that could not 

 be entirely overlooked. 



The ownership of the north pole, or for that matter the south pole, will 

 depend upon dry land being found there. If the spots at 90 degrees latitude 

 be covered with sea or with ice (as Dr. Cook's statements suggest they are) 

 they will belong to no particular nation. They will be treated like any other 

 part of the high seas and belong to all the world. Should there be dry land, 

 the first discoverers may have the honor of taking formal possession in the 

 name of the nationality represented, and for the time a staff with a hoisted 

 flag might display the nationality of the discoverer. 



RIGHTS OF DISCOVERERS. 



The law of nations now steps in to say something on this matter of the 

 rights of discoverers. 



It is not always the simple thing of "first come, first served." Many parts 

 of the world were discovered by British navigators and explorers that were 

 never taken into possession. One authority tells us that "all mankind have 

 anequaUright to things that have not yet fallen into the possession of any one, 

 and these things belong to the persons who first take possession of them." 



This seems clear enough. The practical application comes next. "When, 

 therefore, a nation finds a country uninhabited and without an owner it may 

 lawfully take possession thereof, and after it has sufficiently made known its 

 will in this respect it cannot be deprived of it by another nation." 



What if there be, however, in the newly discovered land aboriginal dwell- 

 ers whom the discoverer chooses to call barbarians or semibarbarians ? Might 

 there not be inhabitants in the country around the north pole? This question, 

 should not be overlooked nor too hastily dismissed from consideration. 



The portion of land that Dr. Cook would travel over must bear a very small 



