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17

To the Editor of the "Times"

Knowing that your columns are always open to the discussion of questions which in any way may affect the interest of the public, I am induced to intrude the following remarks upon a subject which strangely enough appears to have created but little attention compared to the importance attached to it in a scientific and still more in a humane point of view.

In the "Times" of blank space there appeared a paragraph which stated that the Admiralty had taken steps to dispatch certain expeditions to the Arctic Regions to search for the missing exploratory party under Sir J. Franklin, who, it may be remembered, sailed from England on blank space 18th for the purpose of prosecuting the discovery of the North West Passage, which problem has puzzled for so many centuries our hardiest and most adventurous voyagers.

It is beyond a doubt that the party, consisting of one hundred and twenty six men, must at the present moment be involved in the most perilous position from which their own unaided attempts will probably be wholly inadequate to extricate them. It becomes, therefore a matter of the last importance not only to the friends and relatives of the suffering adventurers, but to the public at large, that no stone be left unturned to ensure a successful issue to the effort now being made to afford them relief. The question is, whether such effort has been planned with sufficient ability to guarantee such success.