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In the early 1940s the Argentinian, British and Chilean governments, claiming
overlapping slices of Antarctica, played out a semi-farcical flag-planting
contest there. The British eventually mounted a secret expedition, Operation
Tabarin, to establish permanent bases in the territory and thereby strengthen
their claim. At the end of the war, this became the Falkland Islands
Dependencies Survey.
Argentina responded by taking advantage of Britiain's postwar naval review in
1947 to build its own outposts. Then, in February 1948, Chilean president
Gabriel González Videla arrived in the Antarctic to stake Chile's claim in
person, opening a Chilean base. With the Chilean and Argentinian navies already
active in the area, Britain despatched several warships of its own. Abruptly, it
seemed as if the diplomatic pushing and shoving might erupt into war.
Some time earlier, the Colonial Office had arranged for cameramen to travel
to the Antarctic and document the work of the Falkland Islands Dependencies
Survey. The footage was passed to the COI, who commissioned Editorial Films to
edit it into a one-reeler.
In response to the Videla incident, it was hurriedly re-written to promote
the British position and rubbish Argentinian and Chilean claims. The mention of
'one president and five admirals' in the film's opening sets the bantering but
evasive tone. More direct references to 'illegal bases' established by Argentina
and Chile were excised from the draft script, as was a joke about seal meat
tasting better with chilli sauce.
Similar discretion was at work in the footage of U.S. explorer Finn Ronne
being welcomed by the British. Ronne's excursions in the Dependencies were in
fact resented. His activities at Marguerite Bay, already home to a British
outpost, caused such tension that at one point he was forced to issue a
non-fraternisation order to his team.
The U.S. made no territorial claims in the Antarctic; but neither did it
recognise any, and it was very active there, mounting the largest (and most
militarised) expeditions of any nation. Rumour had it that it had located
Uranium deposits in the Antarctic, or intended to test atom bombs there.
The Chileans and Argentinians appealed to the U.S. for military assistance,
invoking the Rio Treaty, a pan-American defence pact which had been signed the
previous year. Unsurprisingly, this went unanswered. However, the compromise the
U.S. eventually brokered - banning warships from all three nations from
Antarctic waters - arguably levelled the playing-field in their
favour.
Keith Shuaib
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Complete film (9:20)
