THE SOUTHERN PARTY

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXVII, Issue 8356, 17 February 1913, Page 8

THE SOUTHERN PARTY

SENSATIONAL, STATEMENTS IN AMERICA. PETTY OFFICER'EVANS’S STATE. ALLEGED BITTERNESS AMONGST MEMBERS OF EXPEDITION. ALL STATEMENTS DENIED. •News was received in Christchurch on Friday, states the “Lyttelton Times,” that New York journals had published sensational statements,' with large black headlines, dealing with incidents connected with the southern party. The ■ statements were that Petty Officer Edgar Evans, the first member of the party to succumb, went out of his mind, and that there was great bitterness of feeling amongst the survivors because the relief party was not sent out in time to save Captain Scott and the two other members of the southern party. These statements, apparently, were published simultaneously in several of the daily newspapers in New York, and created a tremendous excitement there. Later on, probably, they were sent by cable messages to newspapers in other parts of the world. They were brought under the notice of Commander Evans during the afternoon, and he gave emphatic denials to both of them. He did not say much in regard to Petty Officer Evans’s condition. He simply said: “I can give a clear denial to the statement that he went mad.” He was asked if he was speaking with a knowledge of the circumstances, and he replied: “I have absolute information that he was not mad.” He added that he was glad to have an opportunity to express appreciation of Evans’s pluck and endurance. " He went further into details on the other point. He began by expressing surprise and J indignation at the publication of statements which might reflect upon Dr Atkinson, the leader of the relief party. He was quite satisfied, he said, that Dr Atkinson had behaved admirably in the most trying circumstances, and that no man could have done more than that officer had done. That was the feeling of all members of the expedition. The very idea of bitterness having been engendered against Dr Atkinson was quite absurd. As a matter of fact, the best possible feeling always had existed in the expedition, and it continued. There was neither bitterness nor dissension. The commander added that he had been approached on the same subject by the representative of a London news agency and a London daily newspaper, and he had referred him to a statement he had cabled that day to Sir Edgar Speyer, chairman of the Advisory Committee of the expedition in London, giving the report an unmistakable denial. Several of the other officers, whose attention was drawn to the statements, expressed the same feelings of'indignation. Lieutenant Pennell said that, following the general policy of the expedition, he would not give a eulogy of another member. None of them liked that kind of thing, and none would do it. But he found some difficulty in describing his admiration for Dr Atkinson’s work. He felt very indignant at the statements made in the New York journals. They were utterly untrue. There was nothing to criticise in Dr. Atkinson’s efforts during the relief. There was not the slightest ground for suggesting that criticism of anything Dr Atkinson did came from a single member of the expedition. Lieutenant Campbell: Especially from me, as one in charge of one of the parties he was trying to relieve. Commander Evans: Or from me, whose life ho saved by his professional skill.

Lieutenant* Campbell added that Dr Atkinson, in crossing the stretch of seaice, when trying to relieve the northern party, took enormous risks on his own life. He knew quite well before he started out upon that trip the risks he was taking, but ho never hesitated. It seemed to "be very absurd to level criticism against a man who did that kind of thing. ■Lieutenant Pennell, in further explaining Dr Atkinson’s position at the base, said that when Commander Evans was brought in on a sledge from his pioneer journey, suffering from scurvy, it was found that he was very seriously ill. Dr Levick was away. Dr

Atkinson was the only medical man left. Medicine was given to Commander Evans, and it was absolutely necessary to have constant medical attendance upon him for about a week. It was known t»liat if tlio medic,al attendance was not available he would die. Dr Atkinson, in the circumstances, decided to remain with Commander Evans, and Dimitri and Cherry-Garrard went out to the -relief of the southern party. Lieutenant Campbell added to this by stating that Commander Evans’s illness was of an exceedingly serious character. When the northern party returned to Cape Evans, Dr Atkinson did not think for a minute that the commander would go down to the Antarctic in the Terra Nova when she returned after coming to Lyttelton. Dr Atkinson judged that his illness had shaken him up to such an extent that he would not be fit for the voyage. Evidently Dr Atkinson was quite right, as the commander’s doctor in Christchurch gave the same report. All that showed what a serious condition the commander was in when he was attended by Dr Atkinson. All those officers also praised thei work of Mr Cherry-Garrard, who, withi Dimitri, set, out with dogs to the( southern party’s relief. Lieutenant Bruce-said that the statements published in America seemed to him to bo peculiarly abhorrent. Dr Atkinson and Mr Cherry-Garrard, as all the other members of the expedition knew well, not only risked their lives, but also almost lost them. Mr Cherry-Garrard, on returning from One Ton Hut, was “done’’ and absolutely exhausted. The suggestion that other members of the expedition felt any kind of bitterness towards those two men was cruel and wicked. THE END OF THE STORY. THE COMMANDER AND THE JOURNALISTS. Commander Evans stated yesterday that he and the other responsible officers of the expedition had come to the end of the information they had to give the public. Absolutely, nothing, had been held back, and there was nothing else to give. Besides giving information in Christchurch, he had received large numbers of telegrams and cable messages from newspapers in other parts of the world, seeking for information. He was not a journalist, and had not acquired the art of making “copy,” and he had found it necessary to decline to be further interviewed or to reply to further messages from newspapers. The members of the expedition now wished to be allowed to complete their work without unnecessary interruption.