stefansson-wrangel-09-26-001-023

18

*The Imperial Government takes this occasion to set forth that it considers
as making an integral part of the Empire the islands Henriette, Jeannette,
Bennett, Herald and Oujedinenia, which with the New Siberian Islands,
Wrangell and others situated near the Asiatic coast of the Empire, form
an extension toward the north of the continental shelf of Siberia.
The Imperial Government does not judge it necessary to add to the present
notification the islands Novaia Zemlia, Kolgouev, Waigatch and others
of smaller dimensions situated near the European coast of the Empire,
it being granted that their appurtenance to the territories of the
Empire has been universally recognized for centuries.

”The curiously oblique reference to Wrangel Island seems designed
to imply previous acceptance of what, so far as we can discover, had never before
been claimed.

"The last stage in the history of the island is connected with
the Stefansson Arctic Expedition of 1913-18.” *

In 1912 I had just returned from a four-year arctic expedition
that had been successful enough so that I found myself in a position to organize
another. I formulated ambitious plans which were laid before the American Museum
of Natural History in New York and the National Geographic Society in Washington.
These organizations, together with the Harvard Travellers' Club of Boston, gave
me $50,000.; and two wealthy men of Philadelphia, largely through the advocacy
of my friend, Henry C. Bryant, president of the Philadelphia Geographical
Society, were going to give me, one of them a ship which I had already selected,
and the other money enough to take her through dry dock into a first-rate condition.
But I was a Canadian by birth and my two previous expeditions had been supported
by the University of Toronto and the Geological Survey of Canada. I was anxious
that my native country should again co-operate, and laid my plans accordingly
before Sir Robert Borden, then Prime Minister of Canada. Sir Robert said at
once that Canada ought to take the whole expense and responsibility of the
expedition since our purpose was to explore the Arctic Ocean in which Canada had
a logical interest. Upon my suggestion he wrote letters to the American scientific
organizations concerned asking them to surrender the expedition. This they did upon
the condition (laid down by the National Geographic Society) that our sailing date
*For full text, see appendix C at back of this book.