2110-7-9-14

31st March, 1936.

Edward Shackleton, Esq., Hampton Court Palace, Middlesex, England.

My dear Eddie,

I was most interested to get your letter of 19th March, and to hear about your new expedition. It sounds full of promise. I am particularly glad that you are going to do something to explore the ornithology of Lake Hazen. From my talks with Sergeant Stallworthy it seems to me that there is an enormous amount to be discovered there about the breeding place of birds. You ought to be able to dispose once for all of the legend of Crockerland, in which no one but Peary has ever believed. It is a most ambitious project, and I applaud your proposal to make air reconnaissances first, if possible. We had Washburn, the young American, here the other day, who has been doing good work in the Mount St. Elias group in Alaska, and he attributes his success entirely to his preliminary air reconnaissance.

I am in rather a difficulty about these expeditions. You see, a Governor-General can hardly recommend anything to his Government without it taking on something in the nature of a command, and therefore I have to walk very warily. I can do a lot in private conversation, but I dare not make any official proposals. Canada, except for the privately owned planes of the mining companies, is very backward in the air, though she will have to pull up her socks

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and get busy as soon as the new Transatlantic route is established. This means that she has very few aeroplanes to spare for assisting private expeditions

I think you have more hope of help from home. At the same time our air work here is going to advance pretty rapidly, and by the time you are ready things may be different. So my advice to you is to approach the Canadian authorities directly. The chief people are those connected with the North-west Terrorities Commission. There is no Commissioner at present, but among the Deputy-Commissioners are Dr. Camsell and Sir James McBrien, both of whom you know. I suggest your approaching them direct, putting the matter before them, and I will do what I can in private conversation.

Since I have come to Canada I am completely captured by the lure of the far north. I hope to go to the western Arctic next year, and the following year, if possible, to go to Ellesmereland. I wonder if you will get Sergeant Stallworthy's services. When I last talked to him he was a married man, and regarded his Arctic days as over.

With every good wish.

Yours ever,