BIG TASK

Southland Times, Issue 22512, 21 February 1935, Page 6

BIG TASK

SCIENTIFIC DATA

REAR-ADMIRAL BYRD INTERVIEWED COSTLY EXPLORATION (Per United Press Association.) Wellington, February 20. “It will take me two years at least to work up scientific data, my part being to correlate it, and I will have to lecture throughout the United States for a year or two to make my debt up,” said Rear-Admiral Byrd in an interview to-day. “Expeditions always have debts when they are run by individuals,” he added. “The Government was behind me, but it could not give me money. Most leaders of such expeditions end up bankrupt, and I will have to avoid that. People think that it’s a money-making thing, but they are off the track. It’s a terrific expense, and purely in the interests of science.

“Some papers have said that there might be controversies as to any claims to lands discovered by me, but I can say that so far as I am concerned there will never be any controversy about any land I have discovered. Science knows no boundaries, and my discoveries were purely scientific. They are not of any value from a practical standpoint” Asked whether he made any arrangements for the publication of scientific data, Rear-Admiral Byrd said that it was really up to the expedition to correlate that, but assistance should be received from ten different societies, and it was hoped some assistance might also be given in matters pertaining to the publishing of the work, of which he thought there might be ten volumes.