stefansson-wrangel-09-13-040

SIBERIA ASKED TO HELP SEARCH FOR CRAWFORD ------------ Stefansson Company Cable Siberians to Assist in Determining Fate of Wrangel Party ------------ IS NOT AMERICA’S ------------ Says J. B. Tyrrell, Who States That the Island Is Asiatic ------------

Efforts are being made to secure the co-operation of the Siberian government in ascertaining the fate of Allan Crawford, the Toronto boy, and his two companions, who started across the ice from Wrangel Island in January of this year and have not been heard of since. John Anderson, secretary of the Stefansson Arctic Exploration and Development Company, told The Star to-day that a cable had already been sent to Mr. Stefansson instructing him to make the necessary arrangements.

“We are not sure to just what extent we can depend on the Siberian Soviet,” said Mr. Anderson, “but it is one of the few things that we can do, and we are hoping that they will assist us.”

In answer to a question as to what the company intends doing in the way of further tracing the whereabouts of the Crawford party. Mr. Anderson stated that they were unable to make any definite plans pending the reception of direct word from the relief expedition at Nome. “So far,” he declared, “we have not received any direct communication from Noice. All we have to go on is what the newspapers have been printing.”

Mr. Anderson indicated that he was rather surprised that Noice had not sent any word to the company, in as [much as it was they who had sent] [...]

[...]sag[...] [might] possibly have been de layed.

Not America's

“But you can depend upon it,” he said, “that we shall do everything possible to discover what has happened to Crawford and his companions.”

A. J. T. Taylor, the vice-president of the Stefansson Company, has been out to the coast for the past few weeks and is not due in Toronto until the latter part of the week.

Mr. Anderson said that the capitalization of the company was $100,000, the bulk of the stock being held by Stefansson himself.

“We have no business at all on Wrangel Island,” stated Mr. J. B. Tyrrell, mining engineer and geologist of Toronto who for seventeen years was with the Dominion Geological Survey in northern regions. “Wrangel Island is an Asiatic Island, and is north of Asia, not in the American territory at all.”

Continuing his comments on th[...] Stefansson expedition which end[...] in the probable loss [...] Allan Crawford and [...] Mr. Tyrrell said: “M[...] opinions on the north [...] tions are very valuab[le][...] observed them. But [...] to talk of the value of[...] as an airplane base, he is getting int[o] something he knows nothing about[.] The opinion of an expert in one line is not necessarily valuable in another line about which he knows nothing. Mr. Stefansson should leave that to experts in transportation and in airplanes.

“Wrangel Island is in a polar climate, and so far as is known there are no valuable minerals there. And you have only to look at the map to see that it is an Asiatic island.”

Mr. Tyrrell continued: “The parents of Allan Crawford have my deepest sympathy in the loss of their son. It was a crime for Stefansson to send a young man like that to Wrangel Island. It would have been different if he had sent some old Norwegian or someone who had spent all his life in the Arctic. But instead he sent a youth who knew nothing about Arctic regions. Of course I understand how the adventure of planting the British flag would fire his imagination, but he Wa[s] [...][t]ted for work in polar re[gion][...]