stefansson-wrangel-09-27-056

94

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question between us as to the ownership of territory, let us discuss it quietly
and if necessary submit it to impartial outside arbitration.

Insert
pages
94A.B. and C.

The commotion was not confined to the English-speaking press.
Editorials began to be published in Russia and news despatches to circulate to
the effect that Russia had "always" claimed Wrangell Island, that the claim had
always been undisputed, and that the Russians were the original discoverers. Most
extraordinary of all was the Russian assertion that the discoverer had been
Lieutenant Ferdinand Wrangell who had landed on the island "between the years
1821 and 1824." It is interesting to speculate whether these Soviet documents
were based on actual Russian ignorance of the author or merely upon their cynical assumption
of complete British and American ignorance not only of the history of British
and American exploration but also of the history of Russian exploration and
development. I incline to the latter view. Some of the statesmen of the Russian Revolution
were qualified to come to a California mining town and
teach the star gawkers there the meaning of the word "bluff".

Besides the Wrangell Island venture which looked towards the
development of transpolar air commerce, I had on hand in 1921 two major projects with
regard to the North. I was anxious to get private individuals to realize as
soon as possible the great potentialities of the Canadian Arctic as a pasture land for
reindeer. In this I had been already measurably successful, for I had induced
the Hudson's Bay Company to transport several hundred reindeer from Norway for
an experimental ranch in Baffin Island. Like many another pioneer enterprise,
this one had has suffered through accidents not directly connected with the climate
but due to the human factor. The herds had had bad luck the first year, good
the second, and we are now (summer 1924) waiting with bated breath for the news
of the third winter. If it is good, a war has been won; if it is bad, a skirmish
has gone against us but other battles and the war itself will be won later. hereafter.
Through the nature of the animals and the country the reindeer enterprise must
sometime succeed in Arctic Canada.

My second undertaking was to create interest that should eventually