LABRADOR

Hokitika Guardian, 30 January 1931, Page 3

LABRADOR

SIR WILFRED GRENFELL’S ADDRESS.

LONDON, Dec. 11. Sir Wilfred Grenfell was entertained at dinner at the Hotel Victoria by the Royal Empire Society, and afterwards addressed a meeting ot the society on , his work in Labrador. Lord Desborough, who presided, said that most of the people who began to settle in Labrador in 1650 came from the West. Country. In Labrador the Empire had an asset of great potential wealth, and it was a duty to see that those who faced the hardships of the country had their lives made as pleasant as possible. Sir W ilfreel as a. doctor and a skilled mariner had two great qualifications for his work, the Untility of which could not he overestimated. Sir Wilfred Grenfell said it was a strange thing that right opposite us on the map was a country that had belonged to us for many years, and wo had not even surveyed the coast. He hoped people would get rid of the notion, that so many seemed to have, that Labrador was near the North Pole, when most of it was south of London ; or that it was far' away when really it was the nearest part of the American Continent and could be reached by air by passing over only 400 miles of-open water. A man bad no right to sit opposite hundreds of thousands of square miles and say the whole thing was no. use. What he ought to say was “T am of no use ” if he could not make use of jsuch" a cojintyy lying, in a latitude between the North of France and the North of Scotland. Year after year he had been trying to get a survey, because Labrador with its beautiful harbours, lovely fiords, find magnificent cliffs was going to he the playground of Canada and the United States. He believed he had now succeeded in arranging for a survey. That afternoon he had a long conference with some Americans, and one of them, a pure scientist, wa s going to take out his yacht and his aeroplane and was giving -5000 dollars towards the expenses. Others had promised to bring their aeroplanes as well, and they hoped to meet on the northern coast this year and get a survey made. He j was - advised by experts that they could cover GOO miles a day with good aero--1 planes, and in that way a, survey could i he made quickly with good results. 1 They wanted to survey about 5000 square miles in order to include the coast and a fringe of islands. Tt was | very necessary that that should he 1 done before tourist traffic increased. | Last year there were two steamers, and this year four steamers from Quebec would carry tourists to the Labrador coast.