stefansson-wrangel-09-08-019-001

Personal.

Vancouver, B.C.

April 25th, 1922.

The Honourable J. H. King,
Minister of Public Works,
OTTAWA.

Dear Dr. King,

A particular friend of mine, Mr. Vilhjalmur
Stefansson, the Arctic Explorer, will be in Ottawa
shortly, and is looking forward with special pleasure
to the opportunity of meeting you; so in the meantime,
I thought you would like to know at first hand the real
story in connection with the expedition which Mr. Stef-
ansson sent last Fall to claim Wrangell Island for the
Empire.

I met Mr. Stefansson some three years ago on
one of his lecture tours through British Columbia, and
became a friend of his, and last year, while on business
in Reno, (not seeking a divorce), Stefansson and I met
again, he being on a Chatauqua lecture tour . He was
good enough to take me fully into his confidence in re-
gard to a plan he had of sending a private expedition
to Wrangell Island as quickly as possible in order to
claim the Island before it was taken up by some other
Nation. I was particularly impressed with the broad
patriotic spirit behind this enterprise, and gave Mr.
Stefansson what little assistance I could in forming the
Stefansson Arctic Exploration & Development Company, with
head office in Vancouver.

All the money for this company was supplied by
Mr. Stefansson in person, and he arranged to send a party
of four men by passenger steamer to Nome, and then by a
chartered small boat from Nome to Wrangell Island, where
they landed in September. The party was in charge of a
Mr. Allan Crawford, a young Toronto boy, and it was neces-
sary to do everything just as quietly as possible, as any
publicity might have resulted in a rush being made for
the Island on behalf of some other Nation who might desire
to claim it.