stefansson-wrangel-09-13-042-002

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planned without any semblance of judgment and had, in a
sense, richly deserved whatever misfortune came to it.

The later Noice despatches helped a good deal and would
have removed most of the original bad impression but for the
tremendous excitement about the Italian situation and the
Japanese earthquake, which prevented all but a small number
from paying much attention to the interview with Ada Black-
jack - which got much less space in the papers than would
have been the case had it arrived sooner. Those who read it
carefully and took special note of what Noice said about the
great gale that blew a day or two after the Crawford party
started, have said (one or two of them in print) that the
death of the boys is now clearly shown to have been one of
those accidents so common to polar travel and therefore not
reflecting on the character of Wrangell Island or the judg-
ment of the backers of the expedition or even upon the
judgment of Crawford and his associates.

I understand, of course, that Noice's motive was to
save the feelings of the relatives as much as possible. He
could have done that best by emphasising whatever probability
there was that the death of the three was due either to their
having walked out upon unsafe ice or else to the breaking of
the ice by a gale blowing in darkness.

The saving element here is that the most important men
have taken close note of all that has been said in the
various despatches. They appreciate Noice's motives in the
wording of the original despatch and now have as favourable
an impression both of Noice himself and of the Wrangell
Island enterprise as I could have hoped for.

When you see Noice I think you ought to remind him with
reference to both his writings and speeches that he must al-
ways keep in mind, as I am compelled to do, that the point
of view which we represent has many violent opponents who
are not reluctant to remove a statement from its context or
even to slightly misquote if they get an opportunity. Of
course, it is not possible to prevent such misquotations but
one can at least be on his guard not to give any specially
favourable opportunities.

Much of the editorial comment in England has either been
under the head of "Death from starvation" or has carried a
more or less definite implication that this was the only
cause.

I have cabled Le Bourdais to make sure that the
Affiliated Lyceum and Chautauqua Association of 2443 Prospect