stefansson-wrangel-09-35-028-001

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ATTITUDE OF UNITED STATES RE WRANGEL ISLAND.

I have thought it worth while to report the
substance of conversations with Mr. Winston Churchill,
Colonel Edward M. House, and Mr. A. B. Roosevelt, regard-
ing the attitude of the United States towards Wrangel
Island.

Mr. Churchill asked me why it was that two
prominent Americans now in London - Colonel House and
Mr. Roosevelt - were apparently doing all they could
to help me to get the British Empire to take over
an Island which the Americans were said to covet
also.

I reported this question to Colonel House and
Mr. Roosevelt, and both answered substantially in the
same way.- Even entirely apart from their personal
relations to myself, they feel it far more desirable
for the United States that Wrangel Island should be
under British control, than Russian or Japanese.
They are in so sense spokesmen for the present
American Government, but they consider it obvious
that the American feeling would be especially against
Japanese occupation.

From the legal point of view, the British claims
seem to be strongest, the American claims second,
and the Russian claims weakest. Should the British
surrender their claim, the Americans would be under
some embarrassment in pressing theirs, because such
action would probably cause alarm and protest in
Japan. This protest might be so strong that under

1.