857.014/6
The Secretary of State to the Norwegian Minister (Bryn)
Sir: With reference to your note of February 25, 1924, concerning an alleged agreement of Roald Amundsen to allow the United States to claim all lands he might discover on his projected aeroplane expedition to the North Polar regions, I beg to inform you that I am in receipt of a communication from the Acting Secretary of the Navy stating that a search of the files of the Navy Department shows that the article which appeared in the Rochester Herald was incorrect in its statement that any offer made by Mr. Hammer was acknowledged by the Secretary of the Navy. The basis for the rumor contained in the clipping from the Rochester Herald of January 7, 1924, is, however, to be found in a signed statement, dated October 26, 1923, made by H. H. Hammer, the American representative of Captain Amundsen, to Captain Johnson, Assistant Chief of the Bureau of Aeronautics, of the Navy Department, setting forth the plans for the transpolar flight.
In the concluding sentence Mr. Hammer states “although Captain Amundsen is Norwegian, he would not lay claim to any new lands discovered on behalf of his government, and an American officer could if so desired claim it for his government.” The Navy Department did not reply to this offer in any manner. Furthermore, the Acting Secretary of the Navy states that while Lieutenant Davison was granted permission to volunteer to accompany the expedition, “The Navy has no official connection with the expedition and no control over the plans made by Captain Amundsen to carry it forward.”
In the penultimate paragraph of your letter you state that., in order to avoid any misunderstanding, you would add that possession of all the land which Mr. Amundsen may discover will, of course, be taken in the name of His Majesty, the King of Norway. In my opinion rights similar to those which in earlier centuries were based upon the acts of a discoverer, followed by occupation or settlement consummated at long and uncertain periods thereafter, are not capable of being acquired at the present time. Today, if an explorer is able to ascertain the existence of lands still unknown to civilization, his act of so-called discovery, coupled with a formal taking of possession, would have no significance, save as he might herald the advent of the settler; and where for climatic or other reasons actual settlement would be an impossibility, as in the case of the Polar regions, such conduct on his part would afford frail support for a reasonable claim of sovereignty. I am therefore compelled to state, without now adverting to other considerations, that this Government cannot admit that such taking of possession as a discoverer by Mr. Amundsen [Page 520] of areas explored by him could establish the basis of rights of sovereignty in the Polar regions, to which, it is understood, he is about to depart.
Accept [etc.]