stefansson-wrangel-09-15-071-002

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did not see whichwill make this especially clear, as where I
have thanked you on behalf both of ourselves and the relatives
for certain editing you did, making the original Noice story
less painful and on the whole more correct than it had been
before. I have also made it clear in the chapter that Mr.
Pickering invited me to edit the Noice story but that I
refused to do so. I am certain that anyone who reads the
chapter as a whole will understand my feeling that you were
honorable and considerate in all your dealings (both yourself
personally and the Alliance) and that all wrong impressions
and misstatements were the fault of Mr. Noice.

Of course, Mr. Noice now says that some of the
things had been put into his mouth by the rewrite assistant
furnished him by the Alliance. It is no concern of ours
whether this is true or not. Noice should not have signed
anything which he did not believe to be true. We know that
so many of the misrepresentations are wholly his own that we
are inclined to think that all of them were his own.

I think that in the final editing of the chapter
on the Wrangell Island documents there were eliminated most
of the things to which you more or less objected.

I want to say once more that I remain specially
grateful to you for the changes you made in the Noice story
and that I have the most pleasant feeling about all my
relations with the Toronto Star. I can say the same about
Mr. Pickering. Both my attorneys and myself found him a
very fairminded man and far easier to deal with than one
might have expected under the circumstances.

Still and all, it has been an exceedingly unpleas-
ant and painful affair to us. I regretfully feel that it must
also have been on the whole unpleasant to you.

Just beforeI left New York mutual personal friends
brought me in touch with Mr. Noice's attorney, who lunched
with me. Without any prompting from me he made a statement
about the truths and untruths of Mr. Noice's story and the
morality of his procedure which was practically identical
with one I might have made. He said he had advised Mr.
Noice that his one course was to throw himself on our mercy,
asking forgiveness and making what restitution he could, the
attorney's advice being from the point of view of Mr. Noice's
broad interests through a term of years rather than with
reference to the legal possibilities of the present situation.
He said that he felt he had convinced Mr. Noice that this
would be the wisest course for him but that he had been
unable to convince Mrs. Noice of it, and that it was his
opinion that Mrs. Noice had taken Mr. Noice to Brazil for