POLAR EXPLORATION

Otago Witness, Volume 06, Issue 2899, 6 October 1909, Page 19

POLAR EXPLORATION

STATEMENTS BY COMMANDER PEARY.

NEW YORK, September 29,

Commander Peary raises numerous technical points controverting Dr Cook's claim. He declares that Dr Cook violated ', the custom by not bringing back the ' records found in the cairns. He contends that it was impossible for Cook to have travelled 25£ degrees in one hedging season, the best previous record having been 11 degrees and Commander Peary's 1909 expedition 14 degrees. He concludes by criticising Dr Cook's equipment adversely. He declares that he and Hewson j talked to every member of the Smith j Sound tribe of Eskimos and obtained testimony corroborating the statement of the two accompanying I)r Cook that the latter was r.otout of sight of land. Mr Wmtiiey, who is at St. John's, j states thajt Dr Cook left with him no records, nor told him that he was en- j trusting any. If there are any there is a possibility that^ they 'are in the boxes I and belongings at the cache. j September 30. Commander Peary states that he .did j not permit Dr Cook's -belongings aboard i the Roosevelt lest be- should render , himself subject to, any accusations of tampering with them that Coot's friends might choose to make. : " NEW YORK, October 1. Commander Peary has accepted an mvi- i tatjon to • deliver a lecture before' the ! Royal 'Geographical Society. j * " October 3. Tho National Geographical Society, of { which Dr Cook is a member, has declined j to accord him aa official recognition when j lecturing at Washington to-morrow. . i The proposed dinner by the Explorers' / Club of New York in honour of Dr Cook has been postponed, pending an investigation into his claim that he had ascended Mount M'Kihley. The National Geographical Society explains that the submission of Dr Cook's and Commander Peary's records should precede their official recognition. October 4. The Pittsburg Press has taken a vote of its readers,, and 73,237 express the belief that Dr Cook reached the Pole, while 17,043 believe that Commander Peary reached it. Two thousand eight hundred and fourteen disbelieve that Dr Cook and 58,009 disbelieve Commander Peary reached the Pole. Mt Whitney states that when he met Dr* Cook it was difficult to distinguish him from 'the .Eskimos. Dr Cook was exhausted and ill, and there was nothing but skin on his bones. His condition precluded the idea that he had been only two days' march from land, as Commander Peary asserts. LONDON, September 30. The Lord Mayor will call a meeting at the Mansion House to initiate funds for the Scott expedition to the Antarctic. He believes that the city and citi2>ens will provide a large, part of the necessary money.