Desarrollo de la Antártica

Brian Roberts / INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION FOR ANTARCTIC ••• meet this situation has been the organization of more frequent and longer preparatoy meetílllgs before eadh Consultative Meeting. VI. CO":CLUSIONS. 1 can only fínish with a few very brief conclusions. Our apparent unwillingness to face sorne of tihe real issues confronting us can b.e fatal to the particular interests which each of our governments want most to advocate and D.urture. We have seen this same sequence of events. develop and collapse again and again in the history of other parts of the world. Why, 1 ask, shouid we let it prevail yetagain in the Antarctic? It is possible that a de jacto situation could arise in whidh the Antarctic Treaty Area is administered by the Consultative Parties oí tlhe Treaty on behalf of tlhe full international community. This would, in effect, be a type of condominium. Unless it can be clearly demonstrated that a much wider group of nations are receivíng sorne benefits, thís kind 01 regime will remain open to increasing criticism and lack of co-operation from those who ha ..e not qualified to join the 'club'. To avoid endlessly prolonged conflict, ti think that the Consultative ·Parties need to conduct their activities in suoh a way that they can in due course come to be recognized by the United Nations as responsible trustees acting on behalf of a mudh wider group oI nations. That there will be a price to pay for this outcome is certaill. But, 1 ask you to consider this particular issue. Are any oI the alternative solutions that have been advocated likely to be more acceptable to the original Twelve Consultative Parties? In this connection 1 would like to mentíon an important precedent whích has not been generally iknown. In 1907, three years alter southern wlhaling started,all the Argeritine, Chilean, Norwegian, British and, more recently, the Japanese whaling companies which operated from harbours or shore stations in the Soilth Shetland Islands and South Georgia paid to the British Government annual dues Ior the use oI these facilities. This continued in the Sout!h Shetland until 193'1 when pelagic whaling started; and in South Georgia until the 1960's. mhe point 1 want to make is not about this lB:ritish act oI sovereignty, hut that the greater part of the money received in this way was ploughed back into the Antarcuc and was used to Iinance scientific research on the biology oI whales and their environment. From 1~9'24 onwards the whole of the revenue received in tihis way was ploughed back ¡nto the work oI tibe , 355