Desarrollo de la Antártica

EL DESARROLLO DE LA ANTÁRTICA Here, in one of the most diffícult ice areas in the world -right in the main path of innumerable sout:hward drifting icebergs- many oil companies have considered it worth while to purchase leases, even in areas where the water is more than 1000 metres deep. For these leases they are already paying annual dues. rrhe map which 1 have put on tihe board shows tihe oJltions so far taken up by twelve oH companies. It is no use deceiving ourselves that the technology for successful drilling operations in pO'lar conditions will still take years tO' deve– lop. It is already with us or very c10sely within sight. What we have to face in the Antarctic is not the immediate development of mine– ral resources, but steadily increasing pressures from oH companies wishing to secure options now for use in the jutuTe; also increasing pressures from governments whidh are nO't signatories of the Treaty. Tihere are plenty of goO'd reasons for postponing economic ex– ploitation in the Antarctic. But tht::se are now mO'stly pO'lítical: the fear O'f precipitating a major crisis in the Treaty and the unwilling– ness O'I any oH company to start activities in the absence of an in– ternational agreement which would assure them the necessary licen– ces and protection. At least one government has taken the view that rheir claim to sovereignty must be recO'gnized before uhere can be any extensioll of the Treaty to deal witih mineral e~ploitation. It seems to me that a continuation oI this inflexible attitude can only nave rhe opposite result lrom rhe one which they desire. If the Antarctic Treaty Con– sultative ¡Parties cannot agree together on how this marter should be handled, it is certain tihat opinion in the rest of the world will continue to harden against the original signatories. Increasing pres– sures will be brought tO' bear at the United Nations and in other places to take over the Treaty Area as part of the 'common heritage of mankind'. INbne oI rhe Treaty signatories can possibly hope to obtain recog– nítion of their exclusive rights to resources, wherever t:bese may be Iound in the Antarctíc. The other signatories simply will nor give this recO'gnition; nor, indeed, would the rest oI the world.. [n the past few years we have seen plenty of accumulating evidence of the growing body of opinion that all nations have equal rights in the Antarctic. However muro the signatories of the Treaty may disagree with this view, it is a political reality which we cannO't afford to ig– nore. The historical, legal and practical backgrO'und have leda Iew governments which have been active in che Antarctic to take a quite