stefansson-wrangel-09-05-003-002

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establish a post on Wrangel Island you could, therefore, do one of
three things: First, you could have the supplies intended for
Wrangel Island on board of your ship when it goes east and bring
them back with her, going about straight west from Point Barrow
to Wrangel Island and landing them before you go south into Bering
Straits. Or, if you have not the cargo capacity for doing this,
you can have supplies shipped to some point in Alaska, whether Point
Barrow, Point Hope, or Name, will depend on circumstances, and then
pick these up on the way out and land them in Wrangel Island. The
third thing possible is to send a ship from Vancouver to Wrangel
Island specially for this purpose, or to charter such a ship at
Nome. I should think one of the two first-mentioned methods would
be the one to use.

The Canadian Government has entered upon a general program
of making good its claim to all those northern islands that are ours
by discovery and exploration, so that your Company need not fear lack
of support. Wrangel Island will be British territory and the Hudson's
Bay Company will be protected from foreign competition at least to
the extent of the license fees and tariffs that have to be paid by
foreigners in excess of those that are paid by natives.

I have talked with the Prime Minister, the Minister of the
Interior, and other members of the Cabinet about the possibility of
the Hudson's Bay Company establishing a post on Wrangel Island.
While it would not be proper for them to request you formally to
establish this post, I know that it would be highly pleasing to them
if you did so, for your doing it would greatly strengthen the claim
of Canada to this territory.

Some three years ago the H. Liebes Company of San Fran-
cisco actually undertook to plant a colony of Eskimos on Wrangel
Island. Captain Pederson failed to do this because he sold out his
supplies before he got that far. I am now hoping that the slump in
fur prices may deter the Liebes Company from establishing a post on
Wrangel Island this year. If you do it this year, it will give us
the advantage of a year of time and will give our Government the
advantage of a stronger claim.

I suppose Wrangel Island will be included in the much-
talked-of lease by the Soviet Government of Russia of northeastern
Siberia to an American syndicate. The claim of the Russian Govern-
ment to Wrangel Island has no basis in international law. They did
not discover it, have never explored it nor taken any interest in
it, and the island lies a hundred miles from the coast of the main-
land.

I am hoping also that our reindeer company will put some
reindeer on Wrangel Island within the next few years. There are no
wolves on the island, so that the reindeer would need no protection.

Mr. Angus Brabant,
The Hudson's Bay Company,
Winnipeg, Manitoba.