stefansson-wrangel-09-05-002-002

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and would, in my opinion, recommend to your Company that this be
done but for the fact that the Company did not feel sure that
Wrangel Island was British territory. Hereupon the Prime Minister
presented the matter at a meeting of the Cabinet in Ottawa, Febru-
ary 19th. Immediately after the Cabinet meeting he sent me a
letter, of which a copy follows:

"Prime Minister’s Office

Ottawa, Ontario,
February the 19th, 1921.

"Dear Stefansson:

"I have discussed the matters which you laid
before me to-day and desire to advise you that this
Government purposes to assert the right of Canada to
Wrangel Island, based upon the discoveries and explor-
ation of your expedition.

"Faithfully yours,

(Signed) Arthur Meighen.

"V. Stefansson, Esquire,
The Chateau Laurier,
Ottawa, Ontario."

I want to urge that while Mr. FitzGerald is in London
you go thoroughly into the matter on the basis of the attached
summary and whatever information you may have available. I be-
lieve it would be greatly to the advantage of the Company to
establish a post on Wrangel Island.

I have discussed with the Prime Minister, the Minister
of the Interior, and other members of the Cabinet the possibility
of the Hudson’s Bay Company establishing a post this summer on
Wrangel Island. Their sentiment is that, while it would not be
proper for them to request you to establish this post, their plans
for making secure the claim of Canada to the island would be
materially helped if a British concern were to start a post there
the summer 1921, and they would look with the greatest favor upon
your doing so.

In Ottawa the matter of the Government’s intentions in
this respect is being kept highly confidential, and I was instructed
not to mention the matter to more than two or three of the necessary
officers of your Company and to point out the extremely confidential
nature of these plans.

Mr. Charles V. Sale,
Hudson’s Bay House,
London, E. C. 3.