The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1884-12-05
The deplorable situation Of the Greelv

The deplorable situation Of the Greedy
party, then feared but since known to exist
did not lessen the perils which would have
beSet any relief party started at the begin
ming of an Arctic winter. The Secretary of
War knows of no one whose opinion would
be considered, except the Chief Signal
Officer, who would not have regarded such
an expedition not only as substantially hope
less for any relief earlier than was actually
given, but perilouS in the extreme, if not
foolhardy.
Nothing is more illustrative of the inn
possibility of overcoming at all times the
difficulty of Arctic travel whether by land
or sea, than the fact that two-thirds of
Lieutenant GTeely's party starved to death
at Cape Sabine with $50 pounds of meat I'M
touched at Cape Isabella. distant about
thirty miles, and with $50 rations untouched
at Littleton Island, at about the same dis
lance, but separated by Smiths Sound. 1t
probably never occurred to any one that the
Greedy party could not easily reach and use
both of these stores.
The conclusion reached, after most
anxious and careful consideration, was. on
the 10Th of September, 1888, embodied in q
written memorandum of the Secretary of
War and the Secretary of the Navy. which
was given in full in the Secretary's report
1t may be added that the Secretary of
War, while deploring the terrible loss of
life incurred by the Lady Franklin Bay ex-
petition, has never seen reason to doubt the
propriety of these conclusions reached by
the Secretary of the Navy and himself,
upon all the considerations which were
available to them.
10 some OF the criticisms made by the
Chief Signal Officer in his report no refer
ence seems to be required beyond saying
that the ''Proteus" Court of Inquiry so
called, had the merit of basing its conclu-
sions as to the officers with whom it dealt
upon such information of facts and condi-
tons as was attributable by the officers
themselves at the time of their action,
as well as by the court. But the
expression of the Chief Signal Officer,
above referred to, is an intrusion of an
official opinion as to the propriety of the
course of the Secretaries of War and of the
Navy in not hazarding more lives in 1888
In nearly hopeless adventure, upon his
telegraphic request. This excursion into an
official jurisdiction beyond his own and his
dictum upon the exercise of a superior re-
sponSibility which he was not invited to
share are extraordinary in their time and
pIaoe, adu 1lo Hetluy oAcuSdOl6 even uulueF
whatever of irritation may have been caused
by the findings of the "Proteus" Court of
Inquiry. Waving, however, that considera-
ton, if there had at the time been given more
weight to the views of that branch of
the public service, under whose manage
ment there had been one futile and one dis
astrous expedition in the Northern seas in
two successive years, than to the views of
men having experience in such matters, it
is now hardly to be doubted that we would
have had last summer the news of two
Arctic calamities instead of one. 1t is not
thought that the public would wish better
evidence of this than is to be found in the
official report of Commander Schley, which
the Secretary quotes.