Evening star., 1937-06-20

and Morzart played by artists from the
Moscow State Conservatory of Music,
who made 25,000-mile personal tour
Of the Russian Arctic.
1t is always dangerous to ascribe
motives to other peoples actions, and
so I prefer to quote the London
Times regarding the reasons for
Russia's present enormous program in
the Far North. On November 6, 1886,
that paper said
THE reasons fall >. into two main
groups, military and economic. If
Russia can guarantee for her ships a
passage, at least part-of the year, along
the northern seas . not only will
she take much heavy traffic from the
thin thread of the Trans Siberian
Railway, but in time of war she would
have an all-Russian route for small
battleships and merchantmen +.
The Soviet government next realized
that, if the traffic through the Arctic
seas was to be OF any size or value at
all, 1t would have to be refueled and
revictualled en- route There would
have to be life on the northern shores.
Economic and military considerations
become intermingled. The natural
resources of Siberia had already been
guessed at: 1t was decided to exploit
them to the full"
In itself the present polar venture
amounts to an effort to utilize the
tabled Northwest Passage" by means
Of airplanes. But it is an outgrowth of
the intense aviation activities that at
tended the recent opening OF the
Northeast Passage" for commercial
ships. From both points Of view it fits
squarely into strearl of history that
goes back to Elizabethan days.
Human History Enriched.
The search for q Northeast Passage
has enriched human history since the
English first competed with the Span
ish and the Portuguese for sea route
to the East. Until three years ago,
only three commanders had actually
sailed it: Nordenskiold in 1876,
followed later by Amundsen and
Vilkitski. Each Of the three took two
years for the task
1t remained for the Communists,
flanked by Germany and Japan, and
50 perhaps motivated by military
necessity, to revive the old Eliza bethan
dream Of the Northeast Passage as q
commercial route. In 1884, Prof.
Schmidt sailed most Of it in the
freighter Chelyuskin. The deliberate
though efficient aerial rescue Of all its
passengers and crew after the loss OF
that ship within sight Of the Bering
Sea is one OF the classics in the annals
Of Arctic exploits.
What is less we'll known is that in
1885, four freighters, with 1000 tons of
cargo, sailed the Northeast Passage
both ways without the aid OF ice
breakers. And that In 1896. q year of
exceptionally bad ice conditions, IA
freighters sailed the entire passage
in the routine course Of business,
while 100 ships, among them some
40 British and Norwegian ones,
sailed it approximately halfway, carry
ing cargoes to Russia's new settle
ments In the Arctic, taking out lumber,
coal and other materials for the
U. S. S. r. and the rest Of the world.
To say the least. the story Of
Russia's opening Of her Arctic coast Is
bewildering to the armchair, commen-
tator trying to untangle the over
whelming mass Of official reports.
Timber, coal. salt, oil, furs, fish and
metals of all kinds-these are the
riches that Soviet arctic explorers are
now seeking not only to find, but also
to make available for commercial
exploitation.
Old prospectors Of the Western
Hemisphere would grow dizzy 1T the
speed of things In the Soviet north.
Coal discovered along the Arctic coast
In 1885 and 1885 Is already being
mined and has quota OF 600, 900 tons
in the 1897 plan. Last year explorers
found large deposit Of nickel on the
Tatmir Peninsula, hundreds Of miles
north of Yaarka and anna Zoo YnilAG