The daily Alaskan., 1922-09-26
CLAIM
 MAY ENGAGE
 MANY NATIONS

the ClleL ptOuuClS Ol tue SoAIS''pt"t- ed air flight of the explorer Amund- sen shall prove to be a controversy ! over territorial rights north of the Arctic circle, says t1e Portland Ore gonian. It has almost universally | come to- pass, as it lid with the old i Oregon country, that the issue of pos session Las been suffered to smOuld | CT until the commercial value of l region has seemed to have been dem onstrated, or at least until some fu- ture worth shall have come to be ap- parent. Taereupon there is mucn 5usIing among Cartographers, his torians and diplomats.
 If Amundsen shall adhere to hisde- termination to take off from Point Barrow. he will clearly have made his departure from American soil. Point Barrow is regarded as espec- tally desirable as d base for Nrctic flights. But the prUoable determina- lion of the Canadian government to make itself independent os American bases in the future is indicated by dispatches, recently reprinted in the Congressional Record at the instance of Senator Robinson of Arkansas. stating that that government will as aert its title 10 WrangeI land, which would give it another starting point and a better one than it now possess cs in the event that aviation in the Arctic regions should develop great trade possibilities. The strategic i'm portauce of such a base as Wrargel cen hardly be overesjimated.
 Wrangell land does not appear on
 the maps of half a century ago. Curi-
 cusIy, it was named for a Russi2u admiral Baron Ferdinand Pepruvich EVrangel, who just a hundred years
 ago this year sought for the island
 but did not find it. It was discovered ln 1867 by George Washington De Long. of the ill-fatad Jeanette fame, and thereafter formally occHptej and
 ,Iairled for the United States by Cap
 ain Hooper and Lieut. Reynolds of
 .ne Corwiu and Commander Berry
 nd a party from the Rodgers. If it De conteuded that this nation did not
 pursue its advantage of discovery
 md later taking Of possession. il al
 5 will be held ;LIt no Cther nation
 lid more in that respect than we diG 5tefanssou's 2ia.ln co orcupancy thru
 Ike landing of the KarIuk party in 1914 raises another interesting issrc and one that iG likely 10 engage the attention of international lawyers for some time 10 "ome. Stefunsson him. self was not wi.h the EarlUk party. The commander of the harluk was
 Captain Bartlett, an American, and. m the language of Edward Fairfax
 Naulty. whose lelt:r IS cited in the Record, "the landing of the Karluk
 party on Wrangeu Island was the desperate resort or shipw"eCked
 nen." Bartlett's only reference to
 the flying of a British flag is con
 taiued in an allusion 10 the ultimate removal of the British flag chat had
 flown so long at half mast" Three of the men had died meanwhile, and
 the flag had been kept at half mast as an act of mourning and as a sig nal of distress. But it will also be
 disputed that this was a lawful oy- cupancy. That Bartlett may have
 been instructed to take possession of the country may be beside the ques- ton. Bartlett, according to Naulty,
 never claimed that he had been in- structed and seemingly had no ord. CTS to explore west of the Hist mer- idiau. Wrangel is in longitude IFS west, or whereabouts. On the basis of contiguity it would be Russian ter ritory, but the Russians let their rights lapse by failure to continue the search for 1t begun in 1921.
 Americans have taken the lead in Arctic exploration during the entire aeriod in which exploration has been a matter chiefly of abstract achieve ment and scientific research. It is significant of the recent progress of times, however, that the situation that has now arisen is concerned with air routes which bespeak condi tions of which the early navigators did not even dream. The importance of the Wrangen territory is due to the circumstance that if that land shall be determined to be American it will give us, over known lands flight route by way of Wrangel, | Jeanette. Henrietta and Bennett isl. | ands, Graham Bell land and thence 10 Europe, in addition to the route ny the American side to the Green | and sea. some of these lands have l .-UOWD mineral resourcas bit,,,,ir, l