stefansson-wrangel-09-14-079-001

Telephone

TORONTO, ONTARIO,
Bank of Hamilton Bldg.,
November 7th, 1923.

V. Stefansson Esq.,
General Delivery,
Milwaukee,
Wis.

Dear Stefansson: -

Following our telephone conversation of Monday
evening,I have given a good deal of thought to the Crawford
matter, and I think my three previous and recent letters giv-
ing the gist of conversations Professor Crawford has had with
me will have conveyed to you a general idea of Professor Craw-
ford's views, which views, I think, are due to two principal
influences; first, Noice's articles and the comments made upon
them by Crawford's friends, and secondly, your article in the
Times of October 9th.

A month ago the Crawfords, at least openly, were
in sympathy with you, but now they are openly and bitterly an-
tagonistic to you, and I am afraid are secretly unfriendly to
me. It is clear that they have worked themselves into an un-
reasonable frame of mind and are extremely agitated.

Professor Crawford, I think, is living in the
hope that if you do not speak before the Canadian Club, or do
not write any articles that appear in Toronto papers, then the
Wrangel Island matter willdie down and finally be forgotten.
He, perhaps, overlooks the fact that there are at least two
persons - Noice and Ada Blackjack - who may yet write a series
of things about Wrangel Island, and that the probabilities are
we have not heard the last of Wrangel Island.

I think that in a little time Professor Crawford's
attitude will modify, but I hardly know what is the best way of
hastening this desirable state. You will naturally have to be
cautious in what you write to them, but I am quite clear that
at the proper time you should see Professor Crawford, and that
ultimately it is going to be necessary for you to put this whole
matter in its true light before the Canadian people.

It seems to me that the first step in reconciling
the Crawfords is to get into correspondence with Professor Crawford