stefansson-wrangel-09-13-040-001

SIBERIA ASKED
TO HELP SEARCH
FOR CRAWFORD
------------
Stefansson Company Cable Si-
berians to Assist in Determin-
ing 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 Com-
pany, 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 ex-
tent 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 where-
abouts of the Crawford party. Mr.
Anderson stated that they were un-
able to make any definite plans pend-
ing the reception of direct word from
the relief expedition at Nome. “So
far,” he declared, “we have not re-
ceived 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 hap-
pened to Crawford and his com-
panions.”

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 un-
til the latter part of the week.

Mr. Anderson said that the capital-
ization 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 geolo-
gist of Toronto who for seventeen
years was with the Dominion Geolo-
gical Survey in northern regions.
“Wrangel Island is an Asiatic Island,
and is north of Asia, not in the Am-
erican 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 air-
planes.

“Wrangel Island is in a polar clim-
ate, 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 par-
ents 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 ad-
venture of planting the British flag
would fire his imagination, but he
Wa[s] [...][t]ted for work in polar re-
[gion][...]