stefansson-wrangel-09-08-005-001

Hudson's Bay

March 10, 1922

Dear Mr. FitzGerald:

I have just found out that one of the New York
papers, the New York Times, has got hold of the main facts with
regard to my Wrangel Island enterprise. They are going to publish
the story because they feel sure that if they do not publish it
some other paper soon will. Keeping the matter confidential further
seems to be hopeless. The editor of the New York Times is a per-
sonal friend of mine and advises me that it is advantageous from
every point of view to publish the story fully and truthfully at
the start. Otherwise some garbled publication of it may appear,
as, for instance, through the Hearst papers, in which it may be
attempted to show that what we have done is specifically a hostile
act against the United States, whearas you know the nation I had
primarily in mind was Japan.

I shall give below a very brief recapitulation
of the whole affair for your guidance in case newspaper men come to
you in Winnipeg apropos of the handling of the story by the Asso-
ciated Press.

You are familiar with the facts as to the dis-
covery and exploration of Wrangel Island. Captain Kellett of the
British Navy discovered it in 1849 and it was named Kellett Land on
the charts. Under international law this gave the British a claim
to Wrangel Island for five years but that claim lapsed in 1854 when
up to that time the British had given no indication that they would
follow up the discovery by occupation.

Wrangel Island was sighted by Captain Long of
the American whaling fleet in 1869. This mere sighting of an is-
land already discovered gave [rise] under international law to no
claims on behalf of any country. Captain Long's voyage is interest-
ing chiefly through a slip he made in announcing that he had dis-
covered a land which really was then known to exist. I think it was
in this connection that he suggested the place should be called
Wrangel Island, in honor of the Russian explorer, Baron Wrangel,
who in the third decade of the 19th century had heard rumors of
an undiscovered land to the north of Siberia but had failed to find
it.