Daily Kennebec journal., 1925-07-13
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experiences to group of newspaper
syndicates of various countries, whose
representative at Kings Bay control
led the only means of communica-
tion-Wireless. He refused to allow
Bouman's dispatches to be sent.
The news (along with Amundsen's
personal narrative) was allowed to go
only to a relatively few newspapers,
being controlled in this country by
the North American Newspaper AL
lance.
The bottling up of the news in
this manner was done in spite of the
tremendous l e awakened
throughout the world by the mishap
to the expedition and notwithstand-
ing that the Norwegian government s
action in dispatching relief eXpe-
dition had raised the enterprise from
category of private affair to a pub
lie one to which government shared
and for the results of which the
world anXiously waited.
When it became evident that Am
undsen and his companions might be
lost, and when the government In
response to appeals the world over,
announced it's intention to send re-
lief expedition, the story transcended
the field of private enterprise.
! The Associated Press, responding
! to the public interest, at once began
| it's endeavor to obtain the facts. 1t
applied to the Norwegian government
| for permission to have it's represen-
! tative go on the rescue ship. Finally
the permission, including the prom
Use of the ships wireless, was OBJ
| tanned Later the rescuers left this
ship, eventually transferring to an
other government ship, the Heimdal
and Bouman was not permitted to
board it. He was left stranded al
Advent Bay, where ships rarely
| touch.
This constituted the only instance
in the history of The Associated
! Press that any government has no'
willingly offered facilities for obtain
ing the story of an effort to save hu-
man life. When, in the face of these
obstacles, Bouman at last reached HIS
[, objective and obtained the news
three days went by before he was
permitted to send. 1t said that the
wireless station at Kings Bay wa.
steamer Heimdal. also at Kings Bay
privately controlled.
| AS to the wireless aboard the
a message received from that vessel
by The Associated Press explains
why Bouman was not heard from. Ii
reads:
"Your correspondent arrived Kings
Bay Found Amundsen, Ellsworth;
good health. But in accordance
agreement with Norwegian Aero
! Club, l. its press agent, am compelled
stop all news messages regarding
Amundsen expedition"
Mr.. Bouman, coming from London
to Oslo to board the relief ship, found
| there a fellow newspaper man who
subsequently shared his experiences
William Bird of the Consolidated
Press. Writing aboard a vessel by
which he was making his way back
to Oslo, which he reached before Am
undsen did, Mr.. Bouman wrote a re-
port to the general office of The AS
ISOLATED Press, which follows in part:
'The main difficulty in joining the
relief expedition was to break
through the objections of the Amund
sen press monopoly which aimed al
annexing the relief story as well as
the Polar expedition story. One, they
held, was part and parcel Of the other
The Norwegian Aero Club which pro-
NOTED Amundsen's expedition, had
perfect interlocking arrangements
with the Norwegian admiralty, the
air department and the Spitzbergen
Coal Companies-which virtually rule
the Svalbard Archipelago-and II
| took a vast amount of trouble, in
Guiding a cabinet council, to get any
move at all in the matter. American
Minister Swenson and Consul Snyder
however gave most valuable assist
ance, and eventually l was permitted
to Join the relief mission aboard the
Ingertre.