ORDER IN COUNCIL 
We HAAKON, King of Norway, do hereby proclaim: 
That part of the mainland coast in the Antarctic extending from the limits 
of the Falkland Islands Dependencies in the West (the boundary of Coats Land) 
to the limits of the Australian Antarctic Dependency in the East (45° E. Long.) 
with the land lying within this coast and the environing sea, shall be brought 
under Norwegian sovereignty. 
Given at Oslo Palace on the 14th day of January 1939. 
Under Our Hand and the Seal of the Realm. 
HAAKON 
(L.S.) 
B. ROLSTED 
JOHAN NYGAARDSVOLD 
* * * 
Recommendation from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the 14th January 
1939, approved by Order in Council the same day: 
By Order in Council of the 23rd January 1928, 
Bouvet Island in the Antarctic Ocean was brought under Norwegian sov- 
ereignty, and by Order in Council of the Ist May 1931 the same thing was done 
with Peter I Island in the same ocean. 
Bouvet Island lies in 3° 24’ E. Long. and 54° 26’ S. Lat., i.e. in that part of 
the Antarctic region often called the Atlantic Sector. Peter I Island is situated 
90° 35’ W. Long. and 68° 50’ S. Lat., i.e. in the Pacific Sector of the Antarctic 
region. 
Our object in bringing these islands in the Southern Ocean under Norwegian 
sovereignty was to give the Norwegian whaling industry in that region points of 
support and to guard it against possible encroachment on the part of foreign 
powers. 
Since that time there have been discussions between the Government author- 
ities and the Norwegian interested parties as to whether it would not be right 
and useful to bring a part of the Antarctic mainland under Norwegian sov- 
ereignty. 
Of this mainland with adjacent sea and islands, Great Britain brought under 
her dominion in 1908 the area that has been named the Falkland Islands De- 
pendencies. The region [of the] Ross Dependencies [sic!] was brought under 
New Zealand in 1923; and the largest of all the Antarctic areas, from 160° to 45° 
E. Long., was brought under Australia in 1933. In this latter area, however, 
France had previously taken possession of a small area with a few islands viz. 
Adelie Land around 140° E. Long. 
Bouvet Island lies in the ocean between the British and the Australian sec- 
tors. The land filling this intervening area is what has often been called the 
Atlantic Sector, and here no state has yet claimed sovereignty. 
The mainland in this region long remained unknown and unexplored. We 
know that certain discovery expeditions long ago penetrated the seas adjacent to 
this mainland, e.g. a Russian expedition in 1820 and two English expeditions in 
1831 and 1843. But none of these expeditions got so far in as to sight land and 
still less to put people ashore. 
It was not until 1929 that exploring expeditions reached the mainland in this 
part of the Antarctic, and these expeditions were Norwegian. In the summer of 
45 
