244 ' POLAR PROBLEMS 



In speaking of "the occupation which is sufficient to give a State 

 title to territory" Mr. Olney, as Secretary of State, wrote in 1896: 

 "The only possession required is such as is reasonable under all the 

 circumstances — in view of the extent of the territory claimed, its 

 nature, and the uses to which it is adapted and is put, while mere 

 constructive occupation is kept within bounds by the doctrine of 

 contiguity." While these words were not written about the Arctic, 

 they seem very applicable to that region, where — doubtless for some 

 time to come — no possession will be more than "reasonable" and 

 occupation will be very largely "constructive." 



In thinking of these three elements of title we are apt to conceive 

 that their order in time is naturally, first, discovery, then occupa- 

 tion or settlement, and finally notice. Obviously, occupation cannot 

 precede discovery hy some one; and it seems generally to have been 

 considered, as by the Institute of International Law, that the inter- 

 national notice required was a notice of possession. But the official 

 Canadian claim, so far as it relates to the unknown, is in the nature 

 of a notice before discovery and before occupation. What Canada 

 says is that if Arctic lands be found— found by any one — east of 141° 

 W. and west of 60° W. and Davis Strait, they are Canadian or will be. 



It cannot be said, however, that such a claim as this is wholly 

 without foundation or precedent. It bears some analogy to the "back 

 country" or "hinterland" theory regarding territory stretching away 

 from the coast. More accurately, it may be said to rest partly on the 

 notion of "territorial propinquity" which the United States on one 

 famous occasion recognized as creating "special relations between 

 countries." Claims to unoccupied territory on the ground of con- 

 tiguity are not unknown, although it cannot be said that there is any 

 well-defined or clearly settled principle to support them. 



Very naturally, Canada thinks of the islands now on the map 

 north of her mainland as contiguous territory, natural geographical 

 extensions of the country. Discovered, to a great extent (not wholly) 

 by British explorers, separated from the more southern area and from 

 each other by comparatively narrow straits, though largely unoccupied 

 in any sense, these lands seem to the Canadians a geographical entity 

 and clearly parts of one domain, their own. To project this sentiment 

 still farther north, perhaps across a considerable extent of Arctic sea 

 or ice, is less logical but seems equally natural. 



Legal Theory Underlying Canada's Arctic Extension of the 

 14 1 ST Meridian Boundary 



However, assuming, as we must, that the Canadian claim even 

 to the unknown rests partly on the principle of contiguity, there is 

 another feature of the Arctic map, as Canada would draw it, which is 



