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OXFORD UNIVERSITY ELLESMERE LAND EXPEDITION , 1934.

HAMPTON COURT PALACE.
MIDDLESEX.

17th January 1936.

Dear Lord Tweedsmuir,

You very kindly said just before you left for
Canada, that when the plans for a new Expedition to the
Canadian Arctic were ready, you would put them before the
Government. I am enclosing details of the plans which
Robert Bentham , the Geologist of the Oxford University
Ellesmere Land Expedition, is anxious to put forward.
He is very keen to continue his work in the North, and
has thought out a plan which should enable him to do much
scientific work, and to cover a good deal of country, for
small expense . It depends however , largely on whether the
Royal Canadian Mounted Police feel that they can co-operate
in this matter. In the main, he is anxious to obtain
permission to winter at the Police Detachment at Craig
Harbour, and to use it as a Base for the sledge journeys
which he would undertake. He would, of course, endeavour
to raise the sum necessary to cover his transport North on
the annual relief ship, and his living expenses with the
Police. If however, the North West Territory Council took
a favourable attitude towards it, they might be prepared
to regard him as an unpaid member of the Geological Survey,
and arrange his passage North and back to Canada again,
instead of paying a lump sum contribution, as they did to
our Expedition. They might even be prepared to outfit him
in the same way as they outfit their Geological Survey
parties.

I have already written to Sir James MacBrien, as
he was a very good friend of our last Expedition, to explain
what Bentham 's hopes in the matter are.

With regard to his personal qualities, I should
like to add a strong recommendation, as I know him very well,
having accompanied him not only during the Expedition, but