tion of the territory referred to was the subject of preliminary investigations 
which had not yet been completed; 
The actual state of these investigations now enables a decision to be reached 
in this respect; 
The special commission appointed by the Ministry for Foreign Affairs’ decree 
No. 1541 of the 7th September, 1939, have established the limits of Chilean Ant- 
arctic territory in accordance with the data supplied by geographical, historical, 
juridical and diplomatic precedents which have been consulted and which have 
accumulated up to the present time; 
I decree: 
All lands, islands, islets, reefs of rocks, glaciers, already known or to be dis- 
covered, and their respective territorial waters, in the sector between longitudes 
53° and 90° West, constitute the Chilean Antarctic or Chilean Antarctic territory. 
Take note, communicate, publish and insert in the Bulletin of Laws and 
Decrees of the Government. 
PEDRO AGUIRRE CERDA. 
MarciAL Mora M. 
FRANCE 
Area of Claim. 136° E. to 142° E. 
Date of Claim. 1924 
Remarks. Although for more than a century after the initial discovery 
in 1840 no further voyages were made to the continental area eventually 
claimed, the French continued to maintain their interest in Antarctica. 
France also claims several sub-Antarctic islands, including Saint-Paul, 
Amsterdam, Kerguelen, and Crozet. A decree of November 21, 1924, 
placed these islands and Adelie Land under the administration of the 
governor general of Madagascar. The original area of Adelie Land was 
defined as the territory lying between 136° E. and 142° E. and 66° S. and 
67° S. A second decree of April 1, 1938, enlarged this territory to include 
all land included in a pie-shaped sector running to the South Pole. 
Relevant documents. 
MINISTRY OF COLONIES 
REPORT 
TO THE PRESIDENT OF THE FRENCH REPUBLIC 
Paris, 21 November 1924 
Mr. President: 
I have the honor to submit for your high consideration a draft of a decree 
attaching administratively the Saint-Paul and Amsterdam Islands, the Kerguelen 
and Crozet Archipelagoes, and Adelie Land to the government general of 
Madagascar. 
These faraway parts of our colonial domain have not been up to now the 
object of any permanent administrative organization. In the ignorance in which 
we were for a long time concerning the economic value of these uninhabited 
40 ———_ 
