ANTARCTICA                          915
 was necessary. We do not propose to make one without prior consulta,
 tion with Britain and other claimant countries. I suggested that Mr.
 Meade's arguments about the weak juridical position of any Soviet
 claims should not be used in a reply, as it might have the unfortunate
 effect of stimulating Soviet expeditions to Antarctica. My personal
 reaction for a reply was to point out that we have had no evidence that
 we can expect from the Soviet Union the international cooperation
 which is the basis of the Soviet request. Mr. Hilliker pointed out that
 it had been difficult to give Mr. Boyd any exact information on the
 Department's attitude because no general discussions had been held
 and that in any case our approach would be conditioned to a,largei
 extent by the nature of the Chilean response to our revision of their
 modus vivendi proposal. He also gave Mr. Meade the essence of the
 information we had from Santiago concerning Chilean consideratio-
 of the Soviet note.
 .M. ir. Meade speculated at some length on the question of Antarctic
 claims and the validity of various acts, including the Russian voyage
 of 1819-21, as bases for claims. His random comments lead him to the
 apparent conclusion that the USSR would be prevented from taking
 effective action in Antarctica if the interested countries were to submit
 the question of claims to the International Court. I questioned whether,
 the USSR would agree to the jurisdiction of the Court.


 702.022/7-2050
         The Secretary of State to Senator Ton    Connxdaly

                                      WASHINGTON, August 9, 1950'.
  MAY DEAR SENATOR CONNALLY         I refer to my :letter of July 27,
1950 concerning the letter dated July 17 received by the Committee
on Foreign Relations from Miss E. A. Kendall of Arlington, Virginia.2

  'This letter, which was addressed to Senator Connally in his capacity as
Chair
man of the Senate Committee ion Foreign Relations, was drafted by Grant G.
Hilliker of the Office ,of British Commonwealth and Northern European Affairs
and was concurred in by the Office of the Legal Adviser, by the Office of
the
Special Adviser on Geography, the Office of North and West Coast Affairs
of
the Bureau of Inter-American Affairs, and the Office of the Assistant Secretary,
of State for Congressional Affairs (Jack K. McFall).
  2Under cover of a brief letter of July 20, C. C. O'Day, Clerk of the Senate
Comn-
mittee on Foreign Relations transmitted to Assistant Secretary of State McFall
a copy of a letter of July 17 to the Committee from Miss E. A. Kendall of
Arling-
ton, Virginia, requesting action with respect to United States claims in
the,
Antarctic. Clerk O'Day's letter explained that it would be helpful to the
Coi-.
mittee to have the Department of State's comments on Miss Kendall's letter,
particularly in connection with her statement that the Department was "apa-
thetic" in its attitude toward the Antarctic (702.022/7-2050). In a
brief letter of
July 27 to Senator C onnally, Assistant Secretary McFall for the Secretary
of
State acknowledged receipt of Clerk O'Dny's letter and promised a reply in
a
short time (702.022/7-2050). None of the correspondence under reference here
i~s
printed.