SHACKLETON'S EXPEDITION.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 53, 4 March 1914, Page 4

SHACKLETON'S EXPEDITION.

A writer in the Manchester Guardian state* that Sir Shackleton, who since the announcement oi ins great scheme has been inundated with requests to be allowed to join his expedition from men oi everv class and age and qualification, will not yc i give any information as to the selection he has made, bm as the overland party is to consist ot only twelve men it is safe to sa> that the choice will be made with greater care than has ever before been necessary. One thing, however has been decided—the age oi the 'travellers. When Dr. Mawson sot out on his Antarctic expedition in lull the idea stiil prevailed that extreme youth was a first-rate qualification, ami, ether things being equal. the youngest candidates wire chosen. it was, indeed, the youngest important expedition ever known. Dr. Mawson himself was then under tinny, but was inclined to consider that it he did not make haste., lie would sen;: he too old for the work. It is perhaps the report of his comrades as well as oi' the Scott Expedition that has proved the fallacy of this belief, for new Sir Ernest Shackleton teih me that the finest work in Polar exploration may be expected from men l.etwen the ages of twenty-five and forty. A man does not attain Ins full growth until he is twenty-live am: whatever may be the superiority oi youtli' in the way of spring and verve and enthusiasm, these do not weigl against the staying power of an oldei man or the balanced judgment of oik ! who has experience behind him. 1' ' this expedition, where there is s: 1 little room for mistakes and when ' the ill-considered action of one mai may involve the lives of all, impul 1 sivo youth and the man of middh i age, whose vitality has slightly dim inished, must alike stand aside. Si | Ernest Shackleton, who is now .'r> ! was 27 when he first undertook Pola I work, and about 35 when he mad.' In great march to within 97 miles o the South Pole. Captain Scott wa 33 when he set out in 1901 for tin Antarctic, and 44 when he died. Pro lessor David, who accompanied Si Ernest . Shackleton's expedition am led the party to the south magneti Pole, was nearly 51. Peary was 5 when he discovered the Xorth Pole and Amundsen only 10 when he dis i covered the South Pole.