The Directors of the South Polar Scientific Expedition had steadily reorganized their colony into five distinct territorial divisions or provinces. The South Orkneys Islands, the Antarctica Penisula (which included the South Shetland Islands), West Antarctica, East Antarctica and the Transantarctican Mountains (which was the divider between the West and East Antarctica). They had also formalized the South Polar/Antarctican Line, their initally ad hoc shipping company that exclusively provided for the colony's cargo, logistical and personel carrying needs, possessing a good number of cargo and passenger carrying sea-going, sky and air ships. These ships were now marked by black or dark blue hulls, white upper works, with dark blue funnels with a deep white band beneath a deep black funnel cap.
The South Polar Directorate (the colony's effective government) received the reports from several lookout posts about the British ironclad off their western coast without undue alarm, their intelligence services had already gathered that Great Britain, after nearly forty years was becoming remarkably curious about the colony they had helped established in the frozen southern continent. True, the British governement had largely ignored the South Polar colony's situation, as the colony was self-funded by it's wealthier members and supporters and it's material needs were not generally referenced to the British Colonial Office or indeed any other British office or department. An problems that occurred in the colony, had always been dealt with by the colonists effectively with the resources and personel they already had in hand. Pirate raids were rare so it was even rarer for the Directorate to call upon the Royal Navy or any detachments of the British Army for assistence.
Consequently the British Cabinet had only being only peripherally interested in the colony's regular scientific research reports or even it's routine status reports. These typically arrived in London four times a year since 1846, to be dissseminated to the various Royal Societies that had serious scientific interests in geography, magnetic and wildlife studies. While the colony's administrative records went straight into a special section of the Royal Archives and were promptly forgotten about. The Royal Navy, had shown even less interest in the South Polar colony, after it had all but withdrawn it's naval station in 1865. However, the Directorate had steadily become aware that a three way administrative fight had begun to develop within the British government between the Foreign Office, the Colonial Office and the Admiralty over just who in fact had effective control of the scientific colony's affairs.
The ironclad scouting out the western coast was likely the Royal Navy updating the existing coastal and ice survey maps of the south pole that were already in the Admiralty's archives. What the Directorate was not sure of was whether the Royal Navy intended to re-establish it's naval station in the South Orkneys. It would complicate things for them if that was the case, as the Directorate did not want the British authorities looking too deeply into what they were doing. Though, if they could confine the Royal Navy's interest and activities to Portal Harbour in the South Orkneys, then the situation wasn't irreparable. The Royal Navy had maintained a friendly, hands-off approach when it dealt with the Directorate in the past and it was expected to continue this attitude if it resumed regular relations with the scientific colony it had looked after from 1845-1865.
The Colonial Office's and the Foreign Office's interest was more problematic, as they would insist on taking a more active role in the Directorate's affairs. The Colonial Office, would try to appoint a colonial governor, who would be anwserable to the Secretary of State for the Colonies but not to the inhabitants of Antarctica. While the Foreign Office would try to appoint a resident-commissioner, which amounted to the same thing and would allow the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs (who, just also happened to be current prime minister, Lord Salisbury) to dictate the day to day governance of the South Polar Confederation from London via a form of diplomatic remote control. The Directorate had been appraised that the Colonial Office's bid for control was unlikely to carry the day.
The British Cabinet did not feel there was any justification for it, much to the chagrin of the Right Honourable Sir Henry Thurstan Holland, 1st Baron Knutsford and his Colonial departmental staff, as they had never been involved in the Antarctican exterprise at any point in it's development or execution over the last forty-four years. The Royal Navy which had been fairly actively involved in the inital transport of the expedition and it's set up on the South Orkneys and South Shetlands as well as providing escort, logistical and mail services so the colony could develope, had a much stronger hand to play if it came to it.
The same could be said for the Foreign Office, which had had some preliminary involvement in organizing and setting up the south polar expedition, particularly since a large portion of it's original membership had been as much non-british in origins as there were English, Scottish and Welsh members. This had required a great deal of co-ordination by the Foreign Office and various other countries diplomatic services to vet the qualifications and personalities of the people applying to join the scientific mission or later join the colony when it had been more firmly established in the South Orkneys. The Directorate was thus concerned to head off any one of the three possibilities as soon as possible or for as long as possible if there was in fact no way to avoid them.
No comments:
Post a Comment