Letter from John Anderson to Vilhjalmur Stefansson, 7 September 1921

^ Sept. 13. ^

THE STEFANSSON ARCTIC EXPLORATION& DEVELOPMENT CO. LTD.

614 Credit Foncier Bldg.,Vancouver, B. C.

Sept. 7th, 1921.

V. Stefansson, Esq.,c/o American Geographical Society,Broadway at 156th St.,New York, U.S.A.

Dear Mr. Stefansson,

To keep you informed of the financial positionof the Company and its operations, I enclose a Trial Balance of the accounts as at the 31st of August.

Taking the accounts in their order as they appear on the Trial Balance, I will endeavour to explaineach.

Capital paid up account, $5200.00, which meansthat 52 shares have so far been issued and are held asfollows:- After my visit to Seattle, before the boys left,I found you had advanced to Crawford, Maurer, Knight andGalli, altogether $3248.50. I therefore charged each ofthem the portion they received and credited your account;then issued to you 32 shares, which still leaves a balanceto your credit of $48.50. You will remember that youfirst of all paid in to the Company direct $1,000.00, forwhich I issued ten shares, eight to yourself, one to Mr.Taylor and one to myself, the last two of course only being held nominally to enable us to be on the Board, whichmakes a total of forty shares held by you. I have thesecertificates in the vault here for safe keeping; if youwish me to send them on to you, I shall be pleased to doso.

The next account, Allan Crawford - $416.55, isthe balance left in his account after paying sundry bills

V. Stefansson, Esq. -2- Sept. 7/21.

for outfitting and expenses in Seattle and elsewhere. Icharged his account with all the monies advanced by youand the Company, and gave him credit for the monies disbursed, which is charged to Expense General and ExpenseOutfitting.

The Discount, Interest and Exchange account ismade up of exchange charges on monies advanced to Crawford by the Company, and in paying the balance of Schawbacher, Seattle, account, contracted by Crawford.

The balances appearing in Galli, Knight andMaurer accounts are for money advanced by you and Crawford,and will be taken care of when settling with them fortheir wages or shares in the fur.

The stationery and office supplies account isfor books and stationery supplied to the company.

The Salary account, which is charged to date$150.00, is for Crawford’s first month’s salary. I havenot placed his salary for August to his credit as I amwaiting to hear from you with regard to Crawford’s wishto buy shares and pay up out of salary to the extent of$50.00 per month. The same applies to Knight, I have notgiven him credit for his salary pending hearing from you.You might also, when writing, please advise me from whatdate the salaries of Knight and Maurer commence.

The information I have with regard to theirsalaries and shares of fur is as follows:- Will you please correct me if I am wrong.

V. Stefansson account, balance $48.50, as explained before, is the amount left over after issuingshares for the monies advanced by you to Crawford.

Union Bank of Canada account is the balance onhand at the end of August.

In short, the Company has received from you$5,248.50, and has disbursed $4270.82, as per statement,

V. Stefansson, Esq. -3- Sept.7/21.

leaving a balance in the Bank of $561.13, and $416.55 in the hands of Crawford.

I have explained briefly each account, but if there is any further information you would like, such as the expenditures in detail, I shall be very pleased to forward it to you.

In the event of your not having received my letter of the 18th ult., I enclose copy, and would like to hear from you especially with regard to Knight and Crawford’s application for shares to be paid out of their salaries.

Yours very truly, ^ John Anderson ^ Secretary.

JA : W Enc.