CENTENARY OF FRIDTJOF NANSEN’S BIRTH

Press, Volume C, Issue 29638, 7 October 1961, Page 8

CENTENARY OF FRIDTJOF NANSEN’S BIRTH

Explorer, Scientist And Diplomat liy K M. COMMISSI FRIDTJOF Nansen’s hundredth birthday anniversary will be celebrated on October 10 throughout the Western world with a variety of ceremonies. Thus his notable career as explorer, scientist, scholar and diplomat will be brought again to public notice. Nansen was a man of great courage, great understanding and great fortitude. It is a rewarding and enriching experience to take a 10-minute ferry trip along the Oslo Fjord to Bygdoy, the Norwegian capital’s natural headquarters for its rowing and yachting enthusiasts and for its specially designed maritime museums.

In one of there. Fram Huset. pyramid shaped after the design of the old Norwegian boathouses and with a green sloping roof that is easily picked out from many parts of the fjord, rests Fram, the wonderful little sailing vessel designed by the great Fridtjof Nansen for his voyage to the North Pole in 1893 and used by Amundsen for his south polar explorations 1919-12. To tread the massive deck pianking that had felt the feet of gallant polar explorers, to inspect the men's sleeping quarters, the galley. Nasen's cabin, and to examine the gear they used, fills one with wonder and awe at the gallantry and indominitable courage of those who sailed in this small ship to the icy regions of the poles. That they and ship survived arouses admiration for and curiosity about Nansen himself. What manner of a man was this modern Viking who was a legend in his own time? Fram means forward. A resume of Mansen’s career tells its own story. At 21 he made bis first expedition to Greenland collecting zoological specimens. In 1888 he became the first man to cross that inhospitable continent This journey convinced him that the North Pole could be reached by using a drift current across the polar regions from east to west. Scientists were incredulous, but Nansen was a man who backed up his moral convic. tions with great physical courage.

He designed the Fram to withstand ice pressure. The Fram is pointed at the bow and stern and has sloping sides so that colliding ice would not crush her but slip beneath her. Nanren began his epoch-making journey in the Fram in 1893 His goal was the North Pole. He de. liberately allowed the Fram to become wedged in the ice. squeezed out of the water and gripped in this icy cradle to drift into the Arctic. The little ship did all that Nan. sen hoped and expected and three years later the ship was blasted off the ice at Spitsbergen by her master. Otto Sverdrup, and sailed home in triumph. After two winters abroad the Fram, Nansen realised that provisions would not allow him to wait until the Fram drifted across the pole. He left the Fram with one companion, Frederick Hjalmar Johansen, to try to reach *he Pole with a dog team. He estimated that he was about 350 miles from it and that it would take 50 days. After 23 days. Nansen was forced to abandon the journey, after he had reached a point nearer to the North Pole than had heretofore been achieved. They reached latitude 86 degrees 14 minutes north.

Franz Josef Land From that point, Nansen termed south for Franz Josef Land, which he reached five months after leaving the Fram. With Johansen, he wintered there, fell in with the English explorer Frederick Jackson and returned in Jackson’s ship to Norway, reaching Vardo on August 13. 1866, the day the Fram came off the ice at Spitzbergen. Nanren and his shipmates from the Fram were reunited off the Tromso a week later. In the University of St. Andrews, Scotland, he said to the students in his inaugural adrtsa: "Do you want to know the secret of what has been called my success. It is to destroy my bridges behind me. Fram: Forward. To succeed or to die.” Winner Of Nobel Prize This is the man, the centenary of whose birth on October 10 will be celebrated throughout the Western world with a variety of special ceremonies. It is probable that history will acclaim

Nansen the humanitarian for his prodigious and untiring work for countless millions of refugees. At the same time this Nobel Prize winner was renowned as an explorer, scientist, scholar, diplomat, statesman, expert skier, skater, and hunter.

The triumph of planning and organisation revealed in Nansen's exploration typified his approach to his oceanic research and all his scientific work. His writings are scholarly and full of vivid and artistic drawings. He was the world's first professor of oceanography and historian of the early Vikings. It was the political situa. tion in Norway which caused him to put aside his scientific work and lead the popular movement seeking independence and separation from Sweden. With Norway established as a nation under a constitutional monarchy, Nansen accepted appointment as his country's first Minister to London, where he remained from 1906-08.

After this successful entry into diplomatic fields Nansen returned to Christiania (now Oslo) University as Professor of Oceanography, continued his arctic explorations and made scientific expeditions in the North Atlantic, Siberia and the Azores. Missions World War I was a turning point in Nansen’s career. He was filled with compassion for the victims of war. He led diplomatic missions to the United States in 1917 and 1918 to ensure' his country's food supply. At the war's end he was responsible for the repatriation of 447,604 prisoners of war from 26 countries in 18 months at a cost of about £4O per man, a task accomplished in the face of enormous transport obstacles. From 1920 until his death in 1930 Nansen was the leader of the Norwegian delegation to the Assembly of the League of Nations. He believed passionately in international co-operation and the role the smaller neutral nations could play as mediators. In 1921 he u-as appointed first League of Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. In this capacity Nansen gave' his name to the “Nansen Passport" used by thousands of stateless refugees, after World War I. It was accepted by 52 nations in 1922, the year in which Nansen was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his work for the starving and homeless. He used this prize money to extend his humantarian work. At the request of 12 Governments and 48 Red Cross Societies in 1922 Nansen undertook the work of relief of the millions’ suffer-

ing in the Russian famine. He tried, but failed, at the Peace Conference in Paris, where he represented Norway, to secure international help for these starving millions in Russia. He tried again at the Second Assembly of the League of Nations in 1921 for a League Reconstruction loan. His plea to “Save Russia” was unsuccessful but through Mr Herbert Hoover’s “American Relief” and private individuals he was able to save millions of lives. It was in 1925 that he began his great work in trying to settle the Armenian refugees in the Caucasus. During the war thousands of Armenians were slaughtered; after the war thousands more were massacred. It has been estimated that more than one third of the entire Armenian people were exterminated between 1914 and 1922. Austria, Canada, Chile, Western Germany. Greece. India. Ireland, Italy, Monaco, Switzerland, the United States -and the United Kingdom are among the countries making special Nansen centenary preparations. In Norway a two-day celebration is planned at Oslo University when the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, Mr Felix Sch. nyder, will be guest of honour. He will also present the Nansen medal awarded annually for distinguished service to refugees, to King Olaf, of Norway in acknowledgment of his Majesty’s personal interest and activity in the refugee cause and as a tribute to Norway’s splendid efforts during International Refugee Year and her long traditions in this field. The medal was instituted in 1954.

Champion Of Refugees

In London on October 17 in the Central Hall, Westminister, 2700 schoolchildren of 15 years and upwards will be addressed by Lord Shackleton, Mr Noel Baker and Mr Chris Chataway on Nansen the exporer, the statesman and the humanitarian. The Nansen Centenary Lecture will be delivered to the Royal Geographical Society in London on October 23 by Professor Holterdah of Oslo University. .In the field of international protection and aid Nansen was the first champion of the refugees. It is a tribute to his achievements that the United Nations should have so widely accepted his ideal that the fate of refugees is now a matter of international concern and was given expression last year when 1960 was proclaimed World Refugee Year. This year it is the member nations of the United Natixis Commission for Refugees which have pressed for the celebration of Nansen’s centenary as a tribute to his work and his inspiration to succeeding generations. Associated Newspapers Feature Services.