DXers this article below was written by Bill Kennamer, K5FUV a former ARRL
Membership Services Manager. Read his story below and see his version of the
earlier deletion of Kure & Midway Island and why he says the ARRL made a
mistake. This will have an interesting outcome.
Posted on
http://www.dailydx.com/unfortunate-dele ... l-kennamer April
24, 2017April 25, 2017Author http://www.dailydx.com/author/the-daily-dx
The Daily DX
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On March 31 of this year, I awoke to find A DXCC press release announcing
the deletion of Midway and Kure Island from the DXCC List. I found this hard
to believe, because Midway has been on the DXCC List, both in 1937 and in
1947, since the inception of the DXCC program.
The justification given in the press release was that President Obama
expanded the Papahanaumokuakea Marine National Monument area on August 26,
2016. This he did. However, the area he expanded was water only. He simply
expanded the water area out 50 miles, yet not one piece of land was
included! Since DXCC allows only land-based contacts, this seems to suggest
that there was no justification for deletion, especially a deletion based
upon that particular date.
Perhaps DXCC became confused about their own rules. So I did a further, in
depth review of the Midway situation. I had done this before, between 1996
and 1998, as part of the DXCC 2000 Committee, but thought I should do it
again, since some things had changed. What I found convinces me that there
should have been no deletion of Midway, thus no deletion of Kure.
One of the principles of the DXCC List criteria for additions and deletions
has long been that if an entity is found to meet criteria to be placed on
the list, it is not then removed if that criteria changes. I actually wrote
this into the revised 1998 rules under DXCC List Criteria 3 e). Anything on
the 1998 List cannot be deleted unless their status changes. Further, under
Criteria, 5. Deletion Criteria, c) criteria changes will not be applied
retroactively.
Then, I reviewed again why Midway Island was on the DXCC List, both in 1937
and 1947. The clues begin with a short study of the early history of the
DXCC program, and the rationale behind the list of countries provided at the
beginning.
The history of DXCC actually begins in 1935, with the publication of Clinton
B Desoto's landmark article in QST. (i)In this article, which was used as
the basis for the creation of the first DXCC List, first mention is made of
a "discrete geographical or political entity". Later in that same article is
a discussion of islands and island groups. Groups are "constituted by
several islands commonly grouped under one name and under the same political
control (italics mine.) The Hawaiian Islands are mentioned in this
paragraph. If you check an atlas of the day, you would find the Hawaiian
Islands listed under one name, and the Midway Islands listed separately. You
would find this to be true in a current Rand McNally Atlas as well. The
National Geographic Atlas of the World, 2015, shows the Papahanaumokuakea
Marine Monument, created on June 15, 2006. It also shows Midway separately,
administered by U.S. Fish and Wildlife. (ii)This shows that at the time of
DXCC List creation, Hawaii and Midway were considered separate by mapmakers
and by DXCC, both in 1937, 1947, and even today. In short, it was a discrete
entity, listed by mapmakers as separate from Hawaii, which indeed it was
politically.
To fully understand, it is best to look at the history of Midway and Kure.
A Captain Middlebrook originally claimed Midway for the U.S. on July 5,
1859. It was later formally claimed by the U.S. Navy (August 28, 1867). At
that time Hawaii was an independent kingdom. In 1903, President Theodore
Roosevelt signed Executive Order 199-A, placing Midway under jurisdiction
and control of the U.S. Navy. In 1941, President Franklin Roosevelt issued
Executive Order 8682 creating several Naval Defense Zones. Midway was
included in those areas. On April 22, 1988, Midway was designated a National
Wildlife Area. On October 31, 1996, President Bill Clinton signed Executive
Order 13022 transferring Midway to the Department of the Interior, U.S. Fish
and Wildlife Service to become the Midway Atoll National Wildlife Refuge.
This order remains in force. Never in any of those orders was Midway made a
part of the territory or state of Hawaii, which is what would need to happen
to cause a deletion.
King Kalakaua Sent Colonel J. H. Boyd to Kure as a Special Commissioner,
when on September 20, 1886, he took possession of the island for the
government of Hawaii. Kure has always been part of Hawaii.
Knowing this history, and knowing what the early DXCC philosophy was when
there was no actual, published criteria, it becomes easy to see that the
early assemblers of the list saw that Midway was separate from the territory
of Hawaii because Hawaii was self-governing and Midway was not. That
condition continues to this day. Hawaii becoming a state without inclusion
of Midway actually strengthens this separation, and it is this separation,
and not a specific administration, upon which the inclusion of Midway to the
original DXCC Lists was based. Therefore, the status of Midway has not
changed from the time it first appeared on the DXCC List until today.
Further evidence is provided from the web pages of the Papahanaumokuakea
Marine Monument and the Midway Atoll National Wildlife Refuge and Battle of
Midway National Memorial. The Papahanaumokuakea Marine Monument has as its
co-trustees NOAA (seas within the monument) U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
(Midway National Wildlife Refuge and Battle of Midway Memorial), State of
Hawaii (all of the Hawaiian Islands) and Office of Hawaiian Affairs (Native
affairs within the monument). The trustees are supervisory, with management
and administration by each agency of each part of the monument, as
designated. Fish and Wildlife maintains a staff on Midway. The State of
Hawaii maintains a small staff on Kure to look after the Kure Atoll State
Wildlife Sanctuary. If you want to do anything in the waters of the
monument, contact NOAA. Each individual agency or the State of Hawaii
controls access to their area. None of these administrations appears to have
given up administration of their respective areas within the monument.
So, the DXCC Deletion Criteria have not been met, certainly not by any
action taken on August 26, 2016. Midway does meet the criteria under which
it was added (separate from the Territory of Hawaii), and a change in the
criteria shall not affect the status of any Entity on the list at the time
of the change. Since no particular administration was named, but only that
Midway was different from Hawaii at the time the list was created, then
there was no reason for this deletion, and therefore, no reason for the
deletion of Kure.
Here is a simple four question test that will show the error of this
deletion:
1. Was Midway part of the Territory of Hawaii in 1937 or 1947? It was Not
2. Was Midway incorporated into the State of Hawaii upon statehood in 1959?
No
3. Did Midway become a part of the State of Hawaii when the
Papahanaumokuakea Marine Monument was created in 2006? It did not
4. Is Midway currently an unincorporated insular territory of the U.S. and
not part of the State of Hawaii? It is currently listed as an unincorporated
insular territory of the U.S. by the Department of the Interior, and as such
is not part of the State of Hawaii.
Deleting an Entity and bringing it back to the DXCC List because a more
stringent review showed the error is not new. It was done with the Cayman
Islands deletion in 1960 (iii). So, Midway and Kure should be restored to
the DXCC List.
(i) DeSoto, Clinton B.,"How to Count Countries Worked" QST, October, 1935,
pp40-41,
(ii) National Geographic Atlas of the World, 10th Edition, 2015, "The State
of Hawai'i includes all islands and reefs in the chain that extends from the
island of Hawai'i to Kure, except Midway Islands, which are administered as
a wildlife refuge by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service"
(iii) QST, June 1958, page 97 and QST, September 1960, page 90.