stefansson-wrangel-09-17-015-001

November 13, 1923.

Dear Professor Crawford:

I have been greatly distressed to learn from
Mr. Taylor that you disapprove of the interview with me published by
the London Times. I was so far from suspecting that you could dis-
approve of it that I had asked Mr. Taylor to give it to the Toronto
Star for publication, thinking that you would like to have that
point of view presented to Allan's friends and your own. That Mr.
Taylor did not give it to the Star for publication was an accident -
I forgot to hand him the copy which I had asked him to take.

I do not have myself a copy of this London inter-
view but I remember that there were two or three places in it where I
felt dissatisfied at having been somewhat misquoted. I have now for-
gotten just what the points were and I think I concluded on further
thought that, while the statements had been somewhat perverted, the
general meaning had not been very materially changed.

One of the reasons why I gave the interview to the
Times was the circulation in England of a statement by Noice, which
I quote from memory. It was roughly to the effect that game condi-
tions in Wrangel Island had been excellent during the expedition and
that the troubles there had been due to incompetence. The reason why
the same opinion was not so widely circulated in America was that the
original Noice two thousand-word despatch was forwarded from New York
to England almost unaltered, while the version of it that was printed
in the United States and Canada was an expansion from the original two
thousand words into six thousand words by a careful journalist who
smoothed out some of the tangles in the original despatch and eliminated
or softened the most objectionable parts of it.

With my personal affection for all the boys and my
feeling of admiration and gratitude for what they did, it seems
impossible that anything that I think about them or their work could
offend you if so expressed by me that you really get my meaning. There
must be some very serious misunderstanding between us. It would be
both kind and fair of you and, I am sure, in the end better for all
concerned if you would write me enough so that I may understand wherein
the misunderstandings consist. I should then like to write you fully
upon all the points you raise. In that case I feel sure that all the
differences between us will disappear and you will come to feel that
my grief and concern for everything that happened, while they may not