857.014/4
The Minister in Norway (Swenson) to
the Secretary of State
Christiania, July 5,
1923.
[Received July 18.]
No. 244
Sir: Referring to the Department’s No. 66, of
November 9, 1922, (File No. 857.014/2), relating to the alleged
occupation and annexation by subjects of Norway of the island of Jan
Mayen, I have the honor to enclose herewith copy, with translation, of a
note from the Foreign Office, dated June 30, 1923, in reply to mine of
December 5, 1922, inquiring whether the Norwegian Government claims the
ownership of the island and requesting a complete statement of the facts
on which the claim of ownership is based.
I have [etc.]
[Enclosure—Translation]
The Norwegian Minister for Foreign Affairs
(Michelet) to the American
Minister (Swenson)
Christiania, June 30, 1923.
Mr. Minister: In a note dated December 5th
last regarding the occupation and annexation by the Norwegian
Meteorological Institute
[Page 634]
of a part of the island of Jan Mayen you state that your government
has recently considered the question of the nationality of this
island and that in order to enable it to arrive at a definite
decision in the matter it desires additional information. In that
connection you desire to be informed if the Norwegian Government
claims ownership of the island.
In reply I have the honor to state that in conformity with the
general view relative to the international status of the island the
Norwegian Government is of the opinion that it should be considered
as “terra nullius”. It has so stated in a note of April 21, 1922
communicated to the Secretary of State of the United States through
the Norwegian Minister at Washington, in connection with the
occupation of Jan Mayen in the fall of 1921 by the Norwegian
Government institution: The Norwegian Meteorological Institute. It
has also expressed these views in its notes to other governments on
that occasion.
On the other hand the Norwegian Government assumes that there cannot
arise any question of the annexation of the island by any other
power, in as much as no other country has even approximately as
great interests to safeguard there as Norway; interests which appear
for instance from the fact that the Norwegian Meteorological
Institute has established a wireless meteorological station on Jan
Mayen. The timely warnings of the violent Northwest storms which
sweep through the open space between Spitsbergen and Iceland have
already proved of extraordinary value for Norway, particularly for
the fisheries along the Norwegian coast; and also for Norwegian
agriculture. It has been of great value to Northern Europe as a
whole. By these means, which have been generally commended by
foreign meteorological institutions as well as by foreign
governments, Jan Mayen has been enlisted in the service of
international weather forecasting and a great gap in the
international observation system has thus been filled. I may add
that the island possesses great value for Norway as a station for
Norwegian sealers in the operations which they have conducted in
these waters for so long a time.
Accept [etc.]
