"SO-CALLED DESERTS"

Evening Post, Volume CVII, Issue 84, 8 April 1924, Page 7

"SO-CALLED DESERTS"

STEFANSSON'S NOVEL IDEA

AUSTRALIA'S DREADED INTERIOR.

(UXTTED FBXSS ASSOCIATION.-<OPIBIOHI.) (ACSTRALIAN-NEW z EAtiN D CABLB ASSOOATIOH.) (Received Bth April, 10 a.m.) NEW YORK, 7th April. The Polar explorer, Captain Stefansson,' who is sailing by the Sonoma on 6th May for a lecture tour in Australia, stated in an interview that he will make a special study o!f Central Australia. He is. making his journey . with Captain George Wilkins, of Sydney, a former Polar associate, to obtain data for a series of lectures in Canada when he ■•■returns in October. He expressed the belief that Australia's so-called desert is nothing of the sort, and probably possesses unimagined potential fertility. "I believe that many lands' have a reputation for aridity inversely proportionateto our knowledge of them. Explorers suffer from a rather human tendency to heroise themselves by exaggerating the dangers of .new lands and their inaceesibihty. The. world has been steadily trenching upon its fertile areas until now we are faced with a demand for new territory for expansion; and this can be .met only,by reclaiming the so-called deserts.

Captain Stefansson has already attracted much attention to the possibility of Irving an comfort in "uninhabitable" regions by his book, "The Friendly Arctic, ; which declares that the Arctic region is plentifully supplied ■ .with food suitable for white people. "