stefansson-wrangel-09-14-079

Telephone

TORONTO, ONTARIO, Bank of Hamilton Bldg., November 7th, 1923.

V. Stefansson Esq., General Delivery, Milwaukee, Wis.

Dear Stefansson: -

Following our telephone conversation of Monday evening,I have given a good deal of thought to the Crawford matter, and I think my three previous and recent letters giving the gist of conversations Professor Crawford has had with me will have conveyed to you a general idea of Professor Crawford's views, which views, I think, are due to two principal influences; first, Noice's articles and the comments made upon them by Crawford's friends, and secondly, your article in the Times of October 9th.

A month ago the Crawfords, at least openly, were in sympathy with you, but now they are openly and bitterly antagonistic to you, and I am afraid are secretly unfriendly to me. It is clear that they have worked themselves into an unreasonable frame of mind and are extremely agitated.

Professor Crawford, I think, is living in the hope that if you do not speak before the Canadian Club, or do not write any articles that appear in Toronto papers, then the Wrangel Island matter willdie down and finally be forgotten. He, perhaps, overlooks the fact that there are at least two persons - Noice and Ada Blackjack - who may yet write a series of things about Wrangel Island, and that the probabilities are we have not heard the last of Wrangel Island.

I think that in a little time Professor Crawford's attitude will modify, but I hardly know what is the best way of hastening this desirable state. You will naturally have to be cautious in what you write to them, but I am quite clear that at the proper time you should see Professor Crawford, and that ultimately it is going to be necessary for you to put this whole matter in its true light before the Canadian people.

It seems to me that the first step in reconciling the Crawfords is to get into correspondence with Professor Crawford

V. Stefansson Esq., -2.

and this might best be brought about by your writing to him and saying that you understand he has serious criticisms to make against you, and that you would like an early opportunity of meeting him, and at any rate you would like him to write you fully expressing himself frankly and giving you an opportunity of correcting what may be errors in his mind.

I believe that you could put this on the basis of British fairplay, and I think if you can get Professor Crawford to express himself in writing and then reply to his criticisms it will do more good than if you write giving answers to charges that you have heard of through me.

We must keep before us the fact that both Mr. and Mrs. Crawford are in the depths of despair. They have lost their son and are intensely unhappy. They have the sympathy of everyone who comes in contact with them. Their views are not widespread, and I think are almost entirely confined to a small University circle, and there is no such thing as a general Toronto opinion either for or against you.

There is nothing that I can write in this letter that will adequately convey to you my own feeling of sympathy towards you in this whole unhappy affair. I know that the Crawfords in time will be more reasonable and see matters in their true light, but I feel that it is our duty now to try and save them from themselves, so that they will not be led into the great error of musing premature statements to newspapers that once made would be very difficult to retract, and would certainly do no good to any of the parties concerned.

I am leaving to-night for New York, and will be at the Canadian Club there at least until 6.40 Friday evening, and may possibly stop over until Saturday evening at the same time.

Yours sincerely, AJTaylor

P.S. Please send me with your comments the draft letters which I wrote to Mr. Brewer. I feel we should send these on promptly so as not to keep him waiting unduly for an acknowledgement of his letter.

A.J.T.T.