Transcript of an article, Mr. Stefansson shows Results," from the Montreal Standard, 09 September 1923

Date9 September, 1923

ms numberStefansson Mss-91: Harold Noice Papers, Box 1, Folder 3

abstractCorrespondence, newspaper articles, and other material related to the ill-fated 1921 expedition to Wrangel Island.

Page 1

From Montreal Standard, Montreal, September 9, 1923. "Mr. Stefansson shows Results".
"As we pointed out in these columns some time ago, Mr. Stefansson's ambition to keep in the limelight was hardly worth risking the lives of three (four) young men on a desolate Arctic Island.
"Since then three (four) young men have died of hunger and disease, and Mr. Stefansson over in London is busy with the crocodile tears.. The misadventure has obliged Mr. Stefansson to explain that he alone was responsible for the unfortunate expedition, and that the Canadian Government had nothing to do with it. That it had not was no fault of Mr. Stefansson's, who begged hard enough that they relieve him of the expense.
"The plain truth is that the blood of these young men is on the head of Mr. Stefansson. While they were starving to death on a frozen island to prove the Stefansson theory that an explorer could live off the country, Mr. Stefansson himself was prancing about from one luxurious spot of civilisation to another, lecturing and telling what a hero he was. Meanwhile the three (four) young men went on short rations, then on no rations at all, the food supply Mr. Stefansson had left behind being about one year short of the demand upon it.
"For some time past, Mr. Stefansson has been trying to wish himself and his plans on the Canadian Government. Not being successful in that, he went north and discovered an island, that had been discovered several times before - Wrangel Island to wit - and tried to wish that on the Government. Failing again, he betook himself to England, and tried to wish this island, with which he had no business whatever, on the British Government. He failed in that also, but meanwhile, as we said before, the three (four) young men on the island died.
"After this it would be advisable for Mr. Stefansson to hold down his own islands."