WRANGELL ISLAND

Evening Star, Issue 17924, 21 March 1922, Page 4

WRANGELL ISLAND

STEFAMSSOH'S AHHOUHCEMEHT, BRITISH FLAG PLANTED. Press Association—By Telegraph—Copyright. NEW r YORK, March 20. (Received March 21, at 8.5 a.m.] ' Mr Stefansson has announced that, without the consent or aid of the British Government, ho planted tho British flag and claimed Wrangell Island for Britain. Tho island is one of 'the most important in tho Arctic region, because strategctically it dominates North-eastern Siberia. His last expedition, consisting of four white men, of whom three were Americans, landed at Wxangell Island in September, 1921. He confided, his intention to a Canadian friend, but "the members of the party were not informed. Mr Stefansson conferred recently with Mr Mackenzie King, the Canadian Prime Minister, and intends shortly to sail for England to confer with the British Government, which, it is said, did not take action owing to possible international complications.—A. and N.Z,. Cable. [VilgaliTivrr Stefansson is the son of Icelandic parents who had emigrated to Canada, Ho was born at Winnipeg. Then, as his parents removed to the United States, ho graduated at tho University of lowa. Ho was professor of anthropology at Harvard University, and paid two visite to Iceland on ethnological expeditions. He journeyed in 1906 to the Arctic shoves of Canada by . way of the Mackenzie River, and spent the winter among the Eskimo, learning their language. Ho spent four years in the Arctic with Dr Anderson, finding copper. He started on a new expedition, in 1913 under Canadian auspices, but it met with adversity.]