THE SCOTT FUND.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 10755, 29 April 1913, Page 2

THE SCOTT FUND.

£12.000 FOR EXPLORERS' FAMILIES. By Telegraph.—Pre«a Association.— Copyright (Received April 29, 10 a.m.) LONDON, April 28. The Scott Fund has reached £55,760, of which £12,000 will he earmarked to supplement the Government's provision for the relations of Captain Scott and his companions. The spasm of national emotion evoked by the magnificent story of the death of Captain Scott is not making good in dollars and cents, says a despatch from London to the San Francisco "Chronicle." The failure of the public to respond to the appeal for subscriptions toward the Scott memorial and tlie fund for the widows of the South Pole heroes is due to several causes. First of all there were too many different funds, and then the promoters of the funds began to quarrel among themselves. Lord Curzon got at loggerheads with J. M. Barrie, the famous author and dramatist, who is godfather to Peter " Pan " Scott, the only son of the dead explorer. "With his usual lack of tact, Lord Curzon antagonised everybody who had anything to do with the affair, and King George had to come to the rescue with a subscription and a rebuke. ' Sir Edgar Speyer, the Anglo-Ameri-can millionaire, who to a large extent was financing the expedition, also got into hot water. Ho wanted the public subscriptions to be devoted mainly to meeting such expenses of the trip as were still undefrayed. The public just wanted to give money to Mrs Scott and the widows and children of the others who died like "very gallant gentlemen." Two newspapers tried to get cheap advertisements out of their own funds, and the Lord Mayor of London could scarcely get a cent. The amounts received at the London Mansion House were the smallest on record. The linking of a French battleship, an earthquake in Mexico or a hurricane in the West Indies brought in more. Yet the story of that Antarctic heroism touched the heart and the pride of the people here as nothing has touched it for a centurv. It was only traditional English caution and English dislike of nebulous projects that kept the purse strings tight.