Desarrollo de la Antártica

EL DESARROLLO DE LA ANTÁRTICA value of the major new scientific advances arising directly from research in the Antarctic duri.ng the past few years. AH too often it is forgotten that one of the chief results of the Treaty has been that aH these discoveries nave been made freely available to the whole world. They have notbeen ktpt reserved for the use of me nations responsible f.or opganizing aml fina.ncing the work. Thiril. On the question oí fre''! exchange oí information. The exchange of information about plans and results of scientific and other activities has been very successful. So also has the exchange of scientists between expeditions. 'Phe~e arrangements have certainly gone a long way towards reducing suspicions which were a natural legacy of the earlier periad of secrecy. But tI have some reservations. It is always good in principIe to exchflnge information freely. How– ever, this can become a real and peI1haps an unnecessarily hearvy burden on the responsible administrative organization. 1 have sometimes thought that when we have got into difficulties at Consultatíve IMeetings we have too often sought escape from the real issues by the expedient of agreeing to exdhange information. We now exchange quite a lot of detailed information which is not really needed on a routine basis.Wé have set date limits for these exchanges. Most administrators ¡have fou'nd it d'ifficult to meet these date limits and the record '0f what has actually happened about some of these exchanges is not ver}' good. Often, this exchanged information arrives too late to be of practical value for those operating in tibe Antarctic. 1 should mention. auother aspect. Despite the obvious need, and the mutual advantages to be gained by aH, little real progress has yet been made towards exchange of information abaut marine activities south of lato 609S. Fourth. iFreedom .oí access to all for scientific and other purposes. There have been a few difficulties 11J connection with the freedom of oceanographical research in waters cIaimed as territorial seas. Other complications have arisen from difficulties in inter¡pretation of Art· iele II of the ITreaty and in re1atioll to states wishing to qualify for consultative status under Artiele IX. 1 will come back to this problem latero Fifth. Co-operative working relations witlh '0tiher internationaI organizations. So far as international scientific organizations are concerned, it seems to me that -c,her some rather painful early teetlhing troubles- this is now working fairIy well. 1 hilve already mentioned the ¡key role of SCAR. Some of these organizations are (or should be) pureIy scientific. Some are política!. Some, like the