all rights accruing from United States explorations and 
discoveries without making any actual claims and that we 
do not recognize the validity of claims made by other 
nations. 
United States interests in Antarctica may be said to have 
begun in 1839-1840 when Admiral Wilkes voyaged more 
than halfway around the continent and demonstrated the 
reality of a continent by his landfalls in the Australian 
quadrant. Then there was a great lapse both in official and 
unofficial interest. Not until the First Byrd Antarctic Ex- 
pedition of 1928-1930 did Americans again concern them- 
selves with Antarctica. However, many American citizens 
were long restless about our attitude toward political 
claims, especially after Australia claimed about one-third 
of the continent in 1933. 
I know that a number of American citizens from time to 
time recommended to the State Department that we take 
a more aggressive position regarding our interest in Ant- 
arctica than that embodied in the Hughes policy. This 
concern finally filtered through to the very top, and in 
1938, President Roosevelt asked Secretary Hull to prepare 
a policy study as to what our interests in the polar regions 
should be. Meanwhile, even before this study could be 
completed, Secretary Hull directed Lincoln Ellsworth, who 
was about to fly into the Antarctic in the sector claimed by 
Australia, to drop a copper cylinder containing a note 
claiming for the United States all inland territories within 
one hundred and fifty miles of his route “‘so far as this act 
allows.” I have not been able to find anyone who could 
interpret just what is meant by the words quoted. 
In January, 1939, the report requested by the President 
was delivered and reversed the historic Hughes policy. In- 
17 
