Dr. Fuchs at the Pole

Press, Volume XCVII, Issue 28490, 21 January 1958, Page 10

Dr. Fuchs at the Pole

A regrettable effect of advances in technology and science is that, to the unthinking layman, they can make achievement seem deceptively easy; and the crucial part which human qualities of endurance, pertinacity, leadership, and even heroism must play may often be overlooked. Though Dr. Vivian Fuchs and his Commonwealth party have reached the South Pole with the aid of equipment never dreamed of by participants in the classic period of Polar exploration, their accomplishment of the first stage of their journey has added another notable page to the record Forty-six years earlier on January 18, 1912—Robert Falcon Scott reached the Pole to discover that Amundsen had beaten him to it. The achievement of the geographical Pole itself is no longer the prime object of exploration, as in the days of

Shackleton, Scott, and Amundsen; and the last, great challenge has been the land crossing of the vast ice cap from sea to sea. Acceptance of this challenge has involved the leaders of the Commonwealth expedition in unremitting, skilful, and concerted effort. They have had at their disposal all manner of mechanical and scientific aids; but their quest for the vast amount of knowledge still lacking about the Antarctic continent has made extreme demands upon their abilities. Though the means for overcoming them have multiplied, the hazards and difficulties of Antarctic surface travel remain a supreme test of human fitness and morale. It is our hope, and no doubt the hope of our readers, too, that Dr. Fuchs, having triumphed so far, will be able to complete his primary objective: the land traverse of Antarctica from the Weddell Sea to McMurdo Sound.