702.022/1-450.
2emorandun by the Officerin Charge of British Commonwealth and
  Northern European Affairs (Huiley) to the Director of the Office
  of North and West Coast Affairs (Mills)

CONýFIDENTIAL                       [WASHINGTON,] January 4, 1950.
Subject: ... Antarctica         ....
  Pursuantto ,the policy decision as reported in NSC 21/1 dated
August 30, 1949,' we are now ready to take up with the Chilean
Embassy here the appropriate manner of bringing- their proposal
for an Antarctic modus vivendi,2 as revised by us, before. the inter-
ested countries for discussion. (Our draft has-been given informally
to the British and has been. modified to meet the substance of their
comments. Of course, this should not be mentioned to the Chileans.)

Recommendation
   It is recommended that you ask the Chilean Counselor, MAr.
lRodriguez, to come in to discuss this subject. It is suggested that
you repeat to him what Mr. Miller said to the Chilean Foreign Min-
ister in October, as follows: that the US has given careful considera-
tion to the Chilean proposal for a modus vivendi for Antarctica; that
in present circumstances we believe that this is a most useful approach
to the problem; that while we view favorably the substance, of the
Chilean proposal, we have a number of suggestions which we hope
the Chilean Government will study sympathetically and find itself
in a position to accept.5-
  It is suggested that you hand Mr. Rodriguez the text of our draft
for a modus vivendi, with the comment that our suggestions are
embodied therein and will be clear to him upon comparing it with
the original Chilean draft. There is probably no necessity to discuss
the differences between the Chilean draft and ours. However, it might
be suggested that we will be glad to discuss them with him at any
time. It might be pointed out that-one change from the Chilean draft
is the omission of -the subject of whaling, which, as we have said

  'Under reference here is a memorandum of August 29, 1949, by the Secretary
of State for-the Executive Secretary of- the National Security Council, circulated
to the Council as NSC 21/1, August 30, 1949; for text, see Foreign Relations,
1949, vol. r,,p. 804.
  2During 1,948 the Chilean Government offered a plan (modus8 vivendi) under
which nations interested in Antarctica ,would freeze current legal rights
and
interests for a period of 5 or 10 years and reach an agreement for scientific
co-
operation. For materials on the Chilean proposal and the United States response
thereto, see ibid., 1948, vol. i, Part 2, pp. 962 if.
  ,See supra.
  'Mario Rodriguez A., Chilean Minister-Counselor.
  'During a visit to Chile in October 1949, Assistant Secretary of State
for Inter-
American Affairs Edward G. Miller, Jr., conferred with Chilean Foreign Minister
German Riesco on the Antarctic question. For documentation ,regarding thevisit,
see Foreign Relations, 1949, vol. i, pp. 793 iff...             ..


907


-.ANTARCTICA.