WRANGEL ISLAND.

Auckland Star, Volume LV, Issue 248, 18 October 1924, Page 43 (Supplement)

WRANGEL ISLAND.

ACTION JJY_ SOVIET. BRITISH: COLONISTS SEIZED. {By Cable.—'Press Association.—Copyright.) (Received 10 a.m.) NOME (Alaska), October 17. A colony of people intended to establish the British title to Wrangel Island, in the Arctic Ocean, north of Siberia, were carried off by the Russian armed transport Red October, which raised the Russian flag there on August 20.—(A. and N.Z. Cable.) During the organisation of a relief party to rescue the four British men of the Stefansson expedition, Mr. Stefansson explained that they were, sent to Wrangel Island to continue British sovereignty there. "I landed them there," he said, "because the island is our land, and it was in danger of being occupied by some other Power. The chief value of Wrangel Island, so far as I can foresee, is that it lies on the meridian of Greenwich, and is, therefore, on the direct flying route from England across the Pole. I believe that the Polar area will be covered fifteen or twenty years hence'with a network of air commerce, and it is most important for us to have a landing-place on Wrangel Island for our own flag. "Alan Crawford, a Canadian, was in command of the party, which included Fred Maurer, the man who raised the Union Jack on the island in 1914. Two of the men were with mc on my last expedition. They were landed with plenty of ammunition and stores. They expected to be isolated for one year. I promised to send a ship for them in 1922, and I attempted to do so. On account of the difficulty in obtaining the money (it should be explained that Mr. Stefansson spent upon the expedition all his available financial resources) the supply ship could not sail until September, which proved to be too late in tho season. The ship could not penetrate the ice, and had to return. The schooner that is now waiting to start from Nome, in Alaska, is commanded by Harold Noice, one of my veterans in the Arctic. "Tho distance to the island is about 500 miles, and the ship ought to make a round trip in about three weeks under favourable conditions. The ship ought to set out not later than about August 10, as a matter of prudence. "No white men have ever been isolated in the Polar region aa long as two years without a ship. The only case comparable* is that of Sir John Franklin, the last of whose men are thought to have Hied in the third year of isolation."