“ARCTIC AMAZONS.”

Taranaki Central Press, Volume IV, Issue 380, 11 March 1937, Page 3

“ARCTIC AMAZONS.”

BUT NONE WANTED.

British Expedition Plans. By Air Mail. . London', February 6. Thirteen hundred women have Written asking to be included in the 1937 British Arctic expedition. Letters from men totalled only 500. The expedition organisers Have been inundated with requests from would-be “Arctic Amazons.” “And the answer to all these women is ‘No’,” said expedition leader Ernest W. Walker. “Women of all types have offered their services. Their ages have ranged from 17 to 70, though most of the letters' were written by Women between 17 and 21 and 50 and 60. The 65-yea,r-old wife of an Indian Army officer asked to come. A yoffng girl gave as qualifications the facts that she had learned cooking in rjie girl guides and had 'Sipent a holiday in Scotland, and so would not mind the Arctic cold. “The most touching letter was from a little girl of 11. We appealed for funds, and she sent us two threehalfpenny stamps. She explained that she got sixpence a 'Week pocket money, and after paying for the stamps she had three-halfpence left to last the, week.

"We are going to make the first big film of an Arctic expedition. It’s to be a. ‘talkie’ in colour. We are also going to study the meteorological conditions in the Ross Sea, because we have an idea that the winter conditions there affect the African summer. On this trip, which is the first made by a British expedition for 13 years, we shall leave civilisation for 15 months, and hoipe to bring back facts that will be invaluable to British trade.”