THEY RENDER HELP AND SUCCOUR TO ALL.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 18451, 30 April 1928, Page 3

THEY RENDER HELP AND SUCCOUR TO ALL.

patient work of NORTH-WEST MOUNTED POLICE ON OUTPOST. VANCOUVER, March 21. Outstanding in the heroic, patient work of the Northwest Mounted Police patrols on outpost duty last year, is the record of the patrol, consisting of Inspector T. V. SandysWunsh. Sergeant J. R. Paton and Constable W. A. Cooper in the Yukon, according to the annual report of Commissioner Starnes, head of the famous force. In January, 1927, Sergeant Paton’s hand became affected with gangrene and one of his fingers was amputated by a razor wielded by Inspector Sandys-Wunsh, there being no doctor available. The report says:—“Our men went out of their way to render help and succour to all, from assisting an Indian mother to bring a baby into the world to reading burial services.” The appeal of the Northland is indicated by the fact that many of the men do not wish to come out; some of them have been “in” for 13 years. Stories of privations cheerfully accepted as part of the day’s task, of obstacles overcome that would strike the average man as insurmountable, of heroic and devoted work, make up the report. At the same time, the report is a compendium of valuable information, particularly when it deals with the operation of the force in the sub-Arctic and Arctic regions. Patrols undertaken in mid-winter and extending over many hundreds of miles of Arctic wastes in order to enforce the law of the Dominion among the aborigines, to apprehend whites who do not scruple to vitiate the life of the Eskimo and the Indian, to re-. licv« suffering, kj distribute food and i

to conduct explorations, all designed toward making these regions better known, are recorded in the report in the simplest, matter-of-fact language.