368 



The Review of Reviews. 



WHY NEITHER POLE IS BRITISH 



I'he failure of Captain Scott to be tfie first at the 

 South I'ole lends additional significance to Mr. Alfred 

 Harrison's paper in the Nineteenth Century on the 

 control of British Polar research. He writes to show 

 that Great Britain has been left behind the rest of the 

 world in Polar research, and to explain the reason. 

 British exploration work is mostly the result of private 

 enterprise. We are accustomed to look to the Roya! 

 Geographical Society to take the lead in suih matters. 

 The writer gives the Nares Expedition full credit for 

 their fine achievement in 1876 in coming within four 

 hundred miles of the North Pole. But the control of 

 the country's Polar policy has since then rested with 

 the body of explorers who for over thirty years have 

 not seen an ice-field. Yet it enforces its opinion with 

 the authority of the Medes and Persians. The Nares 

 Expedition left with Great Britain the record for the 

 Farthest North, which she had held for three centuries, 

 having during that period continually improved her 

 own record. But since then its record has been beaten 

 not less than five times in the space of not less than 

 a quarter of a century, thrice by Americans, once by a 

 Norwegian, once by an Italian. Yet the Royal Geo- 

 graphical Society has taken no steps to put a British 

 Arctic expedition into the field. The sum total of the 

 Royal Geographical Society's active British Polar work 

 during the last thirty years appears to be the Discovery 

 Expedition to the Antarctic, and the expedition at 

 present in the field under the same commander. The 

 grants have been, to Captain Scott's two Antarctic 

 expeditions, £9,500 ; to British Polar explorers, £1,800 ; 

 to foreign Arctic explorers, £872. The writer holds 

 that the Poles are " close boroughs of the experts." 

 He has formed the opinion that the Society favours 

 naval men only as their nominees for this purpose. 

 He does not think the Royal Navy has the monopoly 

 of the knowledge suitable for such an expedition. The 

 men best suited for such work are captains of whaling 

 ships. Dr. W. S. Bruce went to the Antarctic before 

 Captain Scott and did remarkably fine work, and sub- 

 mitted plans which Captain Amundsen's journey now 

 tends to show were quite right. But the Polar experts 

 of this country pronounced them impossible :— 



Secondly, Sir Ernest Sli.ickleton, who succeeded Capl.iin 

 Scott as a Soutli Polar explorer, received no support from ilie 

 Society other than the loan of an instrument, and why ? Pre- 

 sumably, because he was not one of their nominees. On his 

 return the Society killed the fatted calf for him, .and partook of 

 the meat, but history does not say whether the meat was 

 palatable. 



Thirdly, the late Mr. David Hanbury, by nature a 

 Polar explorer, was in his prime when Captain Scott 

 got command of the Discovery. But Captain Scott 

 himself declares that he had no predilection for Polar 

 exploration, and obtained the post largely by personal 

 influence : — 



The Koyal Geographical Society, with its widespread 

 orijanisation and comnianil of resources, is able to subordinate 

 or efface the private adventurer. The man of rough, practical 



manner, who is a fool before a Committee, but is at home in 

 the wilds of the frozen North 01 South, has no chance of, 

 support from the expert explorers of Savile Row. lie will he- 

 passed over, if not scorned, and some young man of equal 

 ambition and greater influence who is anxious to win his spurs 

 will be chosen instead. 



If the methods of the Royal Geographical Society are 

 continued, the chance of Great Britain for recovering 

 her place in exploration will be lost : — " The man at 

 the helm, the pilot who is to put the British ship first 

 in the international race, will always be the wrong man, 

 who was not chosen by nature for the post, but by the 1 

 Royal Geographical Society." 



NEW INVIGORATION OF THE EAST 



Caused by the Defe.\t of the Mosol-ito. 



The white man in the tropics is the subject of an 

 interesting paper in the London Quarterly Review by 

 Dr. Edward Walker. The rapid extinction of tropical , 

 diseases, thanks to the war against the malaria- 

 breeding mosquito, leads the writer to indulge in a 

 very significant forecast. He says the enormous reduc- 

 tion in the death-rate must entail a great increase in 

 the population, the greater because the birth-rate will 

 impro\e as malaria, which is one of the leading causes , 

 of a low birth-rate, diminishes. He goes on : — ^ 



'I'be people who survive will also be stronger and healthier, * 

 and before another generation is over we may look for a more . 

 vigorous and virile people. We have heard much of the 

 upheaval and revival of the East. If malaria can be successfully 

 combated in India, that revival will be intensified. Freed from 

 tlie depressing and degenerating influence of that fell tyrant, we 

 shall lind instead of an enervated, morally inefficient population, 

 a nation of strong and vigorous men, strong to think, strong to 

 fight. The temperate zones will not then have a monopoly of : 

 progressive, far-sighled men, men of initiative and insight. The f 

 West will have 10 meet the East renewed in strength .and moral ■ 

 Inrce. Competition will be keener than ever, and Europe will 

 have jiiore powerful rivals for war, commerce, learning and 

 empire. As in the East, so in Africa and Central America. 

 Much of the backwardness of these nations is due to the 

 incidence of disease. Given the absence of its destruction and 

 devitalisation, there is a chance of these peoples coming to their 

 own aiid a prospect is opened up of progress and coinpetition 

 hitherto unknown. 



Not only so, but the white race will be able to 

 colonise tropical regions, — millions of miles of the fairest 

 and richest areas of the earth's surface, unlimited room, 

 unbounded productixeness. The writer also hopes for 

 an increase in the ntimber of missionaries, and in the 

 impression produced on the natives by the victory 

 over the dreaded inalarial foe. 



1 



In the Thcosophist for March Mrs. Besant continues 

 her study of Karma, and Mr. Leadbeater adds a 

 chapter on " Reincarnation and the Purpose of Life " 

 to his " Text-Book of Theosophy." He maintains 

 that the process of building a character is as scientific 

 as that of developing one's muscles. Count Key- 

 serling contributes " Some Suggestions Concerning 

 Theosophy " very suggestive to I'heosophists. 



