THE ANDREE DIARIES

Evening Post, Volume CXXIV, Issue 57, 4 September 1937, Page 8

THE ANDREE DIARIES

(To the Editor.)

Sir, —I was surprised on reading in Thursday's "Post" the cablegram from Tromso (Norway) that it had ■ been thought worth while to cable to this country the fact that a buoy with part of Andree's diary had been picked up. This diary could have, been only a fragment referring to the first or second day of the trip, as the balloon kept aloft for a very short time. The complete diary has already been found and published. Seeing that the expeditions which picked up the Andree relics and finally brought back the bodies of the three members of the balloon crew (together with their effects and the diaries they kept from the time they left Spitzbergen for the North Pole until they returned a month later on foot to White Island where they were found in their last camp) left from and returned to Tromso with maximum publicity, it seems strange that a statement should be made from Tromso that "the explorer's ultimate fate is still a mystery." He and his companions were taken from Tromso by a Swedish warship and given a State > funeral in Stockholm. The diaries were almost entirely deciphered and even the photographic films developed—thirty-three years after having been exposed—and are reproduced in the official volume entitled "The Andree Diaries." This book is of absorbing interest, especially for anyone who appreciates courage and determination in the face of overwhelming odds. —I am, etc.,

F. W. FURKERT.