031.11 Ellsworth Antarctic Expedition/93: Telegram
The Secretary of State to the Consul at Capetown (Denby)
The air mail despatch2 referred to in your telegram of October 14, 9 a.m.3 has not yet been received. Please inform Ellsworth that the Department greatly appreciates his indication of his willingness to cooperate in carrying out the suggestions set forth in the Department’s instruction of August 30, but because of the highly confidential nature [Page 974] of that instruction and the Department’s desire to avoid any possibility of its contents coming to the knowledge of any person not an American citizen, it does not feel that it may comply with his request that a copy be given to him. You may, however, give him on plain paper the substance of the third paragraph so paraphrased as to give no indication of its source, as well as the text of the quotation from Sir Hubert Wilkins’ article.
As indicated in the first paragraph of the Department’s mail instruction, the Department does not feel that it can undertake to suggest to Ellsworth the extent of the territory to which he might assert claims in the name of the United States as an American citizen. For his general guidance, however, he may be interested in knowing that while the United States has not as yet asserted any formal claim to territory in the Antarctic regions, it has in various exchanges of diplomatic correspondence always reserved such rights as it may have acquired by reason of the activities of American citizens in those regions.
The extent of American activities in Wilkes Land, Palmer or Graham Land, Marie Byrd Land and Heard Island, and other areas in the Antarctic are of course well known to Ellsworth. The United States has never recognized the “Sector Principle” nor has it formally recognized any claims in the Antarctic asserted by other Governments.