



Figure 4-4. — Payment of baby bonus. 



mittee of the House of Representatives was discussing the ques- 

 tion of sending the airship Shenandoah to the polar regions (19 

 January 1924).. Mr. Denby, Secretary of the Navy, said that 

 the flight was being undertaken partly because there was an un- 

 known area of 1,000,000 square miles north of Alaska, and that it 

 was "highly desirable that the United States should know what is 

 in that region." The Secretary went on to say, "If there is in 

 that region land, either habitable or not, it should be the property 

 of the United States." The weather flights now being made by 

 the United States, the establishment of weather stations, and the 

 recent trips of public vessels to the Arctic have not been made the 

 basis for any claims by the United States to territory in the arctic 

 regions. 



SOVIET UNION 



The government of the Soviet Union has categorically laid claim 

 to all lands, known and unknown, lying north of the northern coast 

 of Russian Siberia. A decree of 15 April 1926, mentioned previ- 

 ously, states that lands and islands are considered to be Soviet 

 territory when they lie between the northern coast of the Soviet 

 Union and the North Pole, in the region limited by the meridian 

 32°4'35" E., cutting the east side of the Vaidaguba, through the 



148 



