During the past two or th years Wrangel Island has' figured in the telegrams, To the average man, it an unknown place, desolately inated somewhere on the northeastern coast of Siberia, yet interest in it hus been aroused' by a series or quite remarkable events. It belonged to nobody, was. used as a trading station by fur hunters, and Jat different times. since the Soviet bean to function in Russia the Brilish and American flags have been hoisted there, claims that it should belong to one of other of these countries having been made by different explorers. 'Then Russia putt ina definite claim to its possession, and arrested certain of the people' who were found on the island in addition to warning off all other countries which might claim to have an in= rest in the place. According to the japan Advertiser," one of the men taken there, Charles Wells by name, has recently died a prisoner Vladivostok, and his story seems to call for notice. A citizen of the United States, he conceived years the building up of an American, empire within the Arctic circle bas-fed on this unhappy island, and Ted to his final adventures' and their tragic ending. It ix the sort of thing that has to be deplored, and twill not do the Soviet any good internationally, for apparently all that he did was to start work with: out first having obtained a cone sion from the Soviet, ind on the strength of that he was from means of communicate the destruction of his xchoon: then imprisoned. The imagination of Well may not have been by: any means at fault, for latterly a good deal of attention hax been paid to the commercial possibilities of the Arctic. A British mining company has established itself at Spitzberge, although with so far indifferent results, and only a year or two ago Jeertain American Government departments considered taking. po: session of the Arctic regions north lof Alasaka by the use of aeroplanes Cunada at once retaliated by pre= paring for number of land expe ions with the same object in view Jand then nobody did anything: so fa is known. All the same, credit must be given to Wells and his name [should rank high among the pioneers who have shown real imagination.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.