TERRIBLE TRIBUTE EXACTED FROM PIONEERS

Evening Post, Volume LXXXV, Issue 36, 12 February 1913, Page 7

TERRIBLE TRIBUTE EXACTED FROM PIONEERS

HOLDING BACK NEWS OF THE DISASTER. STORY OF A "COURAGEOUS JOURNEY. (Received February 12, 9.40 a.m.) SYDNEY, This Day. The Daily Telegraph, referring to the Scott disaster, says : "It represents another of those terrible tributes occasionally exacted from pioneers who go ahead carrying the lamp of science into the boundless region of the unknown. The debt mankind owes to this type is seldottt realised, still more seldom discharged. The regret excited is sharpened through the manner in which the public was deceived regarding the true state of affairs, and ioolishly allowed to believe that the members of the expedition were alive and well for some time after the return of the ship. Surely such an item as the destruction of an exploring party should not have been commercialised. Presumably the defence to thi«t ghastly silence is that the survivors conceived it to bo their duty to carry out to the letter the contract entered info by CnpUin Scoft himself. Their motive can be respected, but none the less the silence was an amazing error of judgment." The Herald says that there is something which movos the humai. emotions more strongly than can readily be described in this story of a courageous journey "amidst the most terrible pfivn* Lions. The goal was reached, priceless scientific data gathered, and then—oblivion." Tho knowledge that the end Came when the party was nlmost within reach of succour must flood the brimming sympathy.