AT ARCHANGEL

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 255, 23 July 1919, Page 9

AT ARCHANGEL

OUR COLDEST WAR FRONT

WELLINGTON MAN ARRIVES BACK

Captain E. J. Hales, formerly of the , Union S.S'. Company's tug 'i'crawhiti, who has been relieving 'Captain Bullocit during tho past week or two on the tug, •only.returned from'Europo a fo\v weeks «go, wliere, cs an auxiliary member of tho Navy, he saw many interesting sights find ijtrango places. ' Last year Captain Hales war,.on duty in.the' White Sea, and now knows Murmansk and Archangel as well .almost .as ho does Wellington Harbour. Murmansk is th 6 one Russian port opening out northwards that is tolerably free of ice all tho vear round. As a matter .of fact, .Captain Hales says that thero «ro occasions when Murmansk is blocked with ice, but as a rulo the in.fluence of tho Gulf Stream preserves an entrance. The, trouble'was that the British Forces operated out of Archangel, making that port their bitse, and -Arcli- ■ angel was 700 miles frcm Murmansk. Tho ■w.holo'. of the. coast, was a. dreary expanse of bare, inhospitable country, with 'a .barrier line, of rugged snow-covered or ice-caked mountains.' Inland lie' believed it was hot 50 bad, as the country was densely timbered with 'Norway pine, a great deal of which was exported in the .open season. Archangel itself is thirty odd miles up the river Dwina, and is fror.en up for eight months of the year— from November to June—and once pen-1 ned in for the long winter it was next to impossible' for anyone to get out. The ice ' there is Ifift. thick. Last year the an. idea that they might be ablo to keep. Archangel open for a longer period than usual, and sent some ice-breaking steamers of enormons power to raako the attempt, but it 'was found to 'be impossible.

Captain Hales said that lie did not actually come into contact witlf ally of tlie ■•Bolshevists, but in the brief * summer they, had gone up tho river to break up meetings'of "the peasants, who were i'l'p tn- mischief, bat as a ruio the peasants got to know of their approach, and failed to meet when.expccted to do so. ■At Murmansk last year Captain Hales met Major Sir Ernest Shackleton, tho famous explorer,- who had returned from' England after'reporting'on'his expedition to Spitsbergen. ■ According to Captain Hales," Major Shackleton was then on Lis way to Archangel, under instruction? of the British Government, to instruct the men how 1 to dress and live . under Arctic conditions: At Tromsoe, in North-: ern Norway, the Old sea captains and merchants Seemed to know all about Spitzbergen, and were not nearly so optimistic as Shackleton as to it-i mineral resources. On the Trcmsoo.Quay Captain Hales vas.shown a' 20-ton sample of ore said to contain'a metal England required badly during the war,' but' ths' ore" had proved so hard that.there was no known method of smelting it, so' it had been brought back to Tromsoe, and as it' was in the way it was proposed to use it in connection with s.ome reclamation works. "I don't know what amount of money tliis specimen had cost, J ' said Captain Hales. "I was told—but I know it ran into some thousands of pounds!" Captain Hales said thiit living at Home was now extremely costly, and he advises people not'to thinjc of visiting,.England for pleasure for some tinie to come. A n;an of quite moderate tastes has to be, prepaied. to spend between ,£2 10s. and £3 a day if he wishes, to live at all deocntly in London."" <5>