stefansson-wrangel-09-28-066

156-F

1.

We are not reprinting in this book Mr. Noice's original
story of Wrangell Island for two reasons: it is too long, and there
is some legal question as to the ownership of the copyright. A
description and summary of it will have to do.

Anyone who takes the trouble may read the press story as
signed by Mr. Noice (he now says that some of it was written by
others and did not meet his approval fully even at the time) in the
files of the Daily News, Manchester Guardian, New York World,
Toronto Star, and in scores of other papers both in the Old and New
World. He will find it edited and condensed more or less and
differing therefore according to the varying styles of the papers
that printed it. In general it is very sensational, emphasizing
the most gruesome details and, therefore, very painful to the
relatives and friends of the dead. The general incorrectness of
the impression given can be seen only by a comparison of it with
the whole of the evidence upon which it is alleged to be based.
Since the full press story cannot be reproduced here, the reader of
this volume cannot form an independent general judgment (as we have
said) without reference to newspaper files in a library. In doing so he should look for (Most of
the papers printed the Harold Noice story between October and
December, 1923).

But some of the specific misstatements, wrong inferences,
and cruelties of the press story can be and/must be sent down here.

When Harold Noice found himself in possession of all the
extant records of the four men who died, and when he undertook to
withhold these from their friends and relatives until he had published
a narrative which he alleged was based on the records, he placed
himself in a position which (wholly apart from the legal aspect)
was one of grave moral responsibility. As to good intentions,