WRANGELL ISLAND

Otago Daily Times, Issue 18510, 22 March 1922, Page 5

WRANGELL ISLAND

BRITISH FLAG PLANTED. Pre*» Association— By Telegraph—Copyright NEW YORK, March 20. Mr Stefansson has announced that, without the consent or aid of the British Government, he planted -the British flag and claimed Wrangell Island for Britain. The island is one of the most important in the Arctic region, because strategically it dominates North-eastern Siberia. His last expedition, consisting of four white men, of whom three were Americans, landed at Wrangell 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. [Vilgalmur Stefansson, who was professor of anthropology at Harvard University, paid two visits to Iceland on ethnological expeditions. He journeyed in 1906 to the Afctio shores of Canada by way of the Mackenzie River, and spent the _ winter among the Eskimo, learning their language. He spent four years in the Arctic with Dr Anderson, finding copper.]