stefansson-wrangel-09-15-128

December 31, 1924.

Dear Taylor:

Here are copies of the French documents that support the item I marked for you in the January 25th number of the Geographical Review. Perhaps Mr. Stevens or someone you know in the Government might be interested. The French claims are very shadowy, resting mainly on discoveries that are several centuries old. You will remember that the British Government has proclaimed its rights over the parts of Antarctica explored by them. Lately, I believe, this territory has been attached to New Zealand. If you look at a globe, you see how remote those lands are from any important countries and how inaccessible as compared with such islands, for instance, as Wrangel. Furthermore, they have no aeronautical strategic value either in peace or war, for the flying routes between no great inhabited countries lie anywhere near them. Also these lands are in reality mainly covered with ice where the Arctic lands (except Ellesmere, Heibert, Greenland, Spitsbergen, and Franz Josef) have less permanent ice than British Columbia.

A.J.T. Taylor, Esq., Bank of Hamilton Building Toronto, Ontario.