COMMERCIAL AND POLITICAL ASPECTS 



the king or ruler. To quote D. H. Miller {Polar 

 Problems), "In early days, the discovery of unknown 

 lands was regarded as the primary source of national 

 title. But the impossibility that* discovery, without 

 an}i:hing more should constitute a continuing basis of 

 sovereignty soon became obvious, and 'effective occu- 

 pation' or 'settlement' became a requisite. In recent 

 years a third element of title has come to be thought 

 of internationally as almost necessary, i.e. notification 

 of the fact to other Powers." 



In July, 1908, Letters Patent from the British 

 Crown appointed the Governor of the Falkland Islands 

 to be Governor of South Georgia, the South Orkneys, 

 the South Shetlands, the Sandwich Isles, and Graham 

 Land. The territory lay ''south of the fiftieth parallel 

 of south latitude and between the twentieth and eight- 

 ieth degrees of west longitude." The original limits 

 apparently included Tierra del Fuego and other lands 

 of Chile and Argentina. But an amended definition 

 gave the boundaries shown on the map, which extended 

 along the tw^o meridians to the South Pole. Thus the 

 Weddell Sea became a British territory. (Figure 34.) 



In July, 1923, a second dependency was constituted 

 which places the R^s Sea beneath the Union Jack 

 under the jurisdiction of the Governor General of New 

 Zealand. Here the sixtieth latitude is the northern 

 boundary, the other two being the i6oth degree of 

 east longitude, and the 150th degree of west longitude. 

 In January, 1841, Ross had taken possession of these 

 lands on Possession Island near Cape Adare. Sir 

 Edgeworth David raised the flag at the South Mag- 



229 



