PEARY’S POLAR JOURNEY

Taranaki Daily News, 17 October 1930, Page 9

PEARY’S POLAR JOURNEY

DID HE REACH OBJECTIVE?

BURIWASH TALKS WITH ESKIMOS

REVIVAL OF THE CONTROVERSY

By Telegraph—Press Assn.—Copyright. Vancouver,' Oct. 14. An interview with Major L. T. Burwash, published at Toronto, states that during his recent trip to King William’s Land he met Eskimos who formed part of the Peary North Pole expedition. Major Burwash is quoted au saying: “They did not know anything about the poles, those Eskimos. The poles meant nothing to them, but when asked whether the White man Peary reached ais destination the Eskimos indicated he had not. They told me there had been evidence of despondency among the members of the party, there had been nothing of the jubilation to which such a discovery would give rise. Tho Eskimos said there had been no rejoicings, no feasts.”

Major L. T, Burwash, as head of tho North-West Territories Department, has been 33 times in the Arctic, and on each trip he made inquiries of Eskimos as to their farthest north movements with or without a white man. Major Burwash would not give his own opinion, reserving it for a report on the whole subject of the latest northern expedition for the Government.

The same inference that Peary failed has quietly pervaded official circles through the year. Arctic explorers, who come and go quietly on survey work, marvelled how Peary could get there and back with dogs in the time claimed by him. They held their peace, not desiring to disturb the acclaim awarded him, but there is no doubt in t'heir own minds that the feat is next to impossible. A later message states: “I a/m awfully sorry this has been dragged into the papers,” said Major Burwash in commenting on the published article quoting him as questioning Peary’s discovery of the North Pole. “It was never meant by me to be published. My remarks were never meant as an opinion. I merely repeated what certain Eskimo drivers had stated and added that their accounts placed a further complex aspect on the controversial Peary polar discovery.”