Editorial Note
Replies to circular telegram 206 were received from the addressees throughout late October and early November 1954. Telegrams 127 and 142 from Canberra, dated October 21 and November 25, respectively, reported Australian eagerness to aid and support the Atka expedition and the agreement of the Australian Government that it would be undesirable to provide the Soviet Union with the opportunity to justify the establishment of Antarctic bases as part of the IGY. Telegrams 314 and 338 from Oslo, dated November 3 and November 16, respectively, stressed Norwegian determination to establish IGY base sites only in areas already claimed and the emphasis of the Norwegian Government upon Arctic as opposed to Antarctic research. Telegram 2085 from Paris, dated November 16, stressed the decision of the French Government to establish IGY sites in previously claimed regions in Telegram 272 from Buenos Aires, dated November 18, reported the Argentine Government’s offer not only to provide complete logistical support for the Atka but also to provide a naval observer’s berth for an American officer on the Argentine icebreaker San Martin due to depart for Antarctica on December 15. Telegram 2246 from London, dated November 6, reported that the United Kingdom had no plans for establishing IGY bases in “gap” locations, would be happy to invite the United States to establish a station within the claimed United Kingdom sector of Antarctica, and that the United Kingdom had received no indication that the Soviet Union was particularly interested in Antarctica. All of the above telegrams are in file 031.1102.