Early in 1940 the German naval high command, acting through the German naval attaché in Moscow, opened negotiations with the Soviet Navy for the passage of two ships along the Northern Sea Route in the summer of that year. Agreement with the Soviet naval authorities was reached, possibly without the knowledge of the Soviet Government. The operation was to be carried out in the strictest secrecy, and a sum of 850,000 roubles (calculated on the expenses of the icebreakers involved) was to be paid by the Germans. Preparations accordingly went forward. One of the two ships was obliged for some reason to drop out, leaving only the other, the raider Komet, to make the voyage. The Komet was a converted merchant ship of 3300 gross registered tons driven by Diesel motors. She had a top speed of 14 knots. Special preparations for running in ice included strengthening the hull and screw and testing the steering gear more severely than usual: the special type of screw with removable blades, as used by Russian ships for ice passages, was not available. Her commander was Kapitan, later Konteradmiral, Robert Eyssen. He had worked in the 1930'sfor Hydrografisches Amt des OKK (Hydrographic Office of the German naval high command), and while first officer and later commander of the survey vessel Meteor had had experience in ice navigation off East Greenland. The crew numbered 270, but included no meteorologists or hydrographers. From the commander's point of view, one of the most useful members of the crew was his interpreter, a man referred to in reports as Agent Kroepsch, a person of unknown allegiance. Krbepsch's knowledge of Russian enabled the commander to get a clearer picture of the changeable and, to him, most suspicious attitude of the Russians towards the voyage, and to act accordingly. The voyage itself was remarkable because it showed that with the assistance of icebreakers and good ice and weather conditions very fast time can be made—in fact the voyage was the fastest ever made up to that date.

The Arctic Fox (Alopex lagopusand allied forms) is not only the chief furbearing animal in circumboreal regions, but also offers some fascinating ecological problems in its strong fluctuations in numbers, its extensive migrations, the diseases that appear periodically in its populations, and in the existence of two well-marked colour phases—the white and the “blue”—the relative abundance of which varies geographically in an extraordinary manner. Except in the U.S.S.R., comparatively little systematic study in the field has been made of this species by biologists, although it has been the object of several enquiries conducted through fur-trading and other organisations (of which the Canadian Arctic Wild Life Enquiry (Chitty and Chitty, 1941, 1945) is an example), and it has been observed in a scattered fashion by innumerable polarexpeditions.

A bound volume of letters in the library of the British Museum (Natural History) contains eight letters written by William Scoresby junior between 1809 and 1819. The earliest letter is addressed to Sir Joseph Banks, but, being probably only part of the communication, is unsigned. The remainder, all signed, are addressed to Everard Home.

During the war Gronlands Styrelse in Copenhagen was completely cut off from Greenland. Some preparations were made to deal with the situation which would arise when contact was re-established, but there were several unforeseen developments. Thus in 1945 the Danish administration was suddenly confronted with the problem of maintaining a meteorological service which had grown beyond all recognition. In 1939 regular reports had been broadcast by nine stations: five permanent Danish stations, at Julianehaab (control), Godthaab, Godhavn, Angmagssalik and Scoresbysund, two temporary Danish stations at Ella 0 and Morkef jord, and two permanent Norwegian stations, administered by Norges Svalbard- og Ishavs-undersekelser, at Myggbukta and Torgilsbu. In addition, there were some twenty other wireless stations distributed amongst the larger settlements, these being generally low-powered and obsolescent, although a few of them sent in reports to Julianehaab at irregular intervals.

Early in 1945 a rumour was spreading round that a film was to be made of Scott's Last Expedition, and the reaction among the “survivors”—as the press chooses to call us—was interesting. It was, almost universally, one of dismay and even antagonism. The arguments against it were varied. The story was already sufficiently told; it was out-of-date; to film it would be an invasion of privacy, and so on and so forth.

The importance of Australia taking an active interest in her Antarctic Dependencies was strongly urged by Sir Douglas Mawson for several years before the war. Support by the government of the day was evidenced by the fact that the Wyatt Earp was purchased from Lincoln Ellsworth after his return from the Antarctic in 1939, the express intention being to use her for further Antarctic operations. No firm plans, however, were made, and with the gathering war clouds in Europe the idea of an Australian expedition to the Antarctic was temporarily deferred.

Polar research is significant to glaciologists first because real inland ice is found only in the polar regions, and secondly because most of the glaciers there belongto a distinct geophysical type. It is therefore remarkable that the snow, iceand glaciers of these regions only recently became objects of interest and study.

An Austrian polar explorer, Karl Weyprecht, was the first to advance a definite scheme for investigating the polar regions on an international level. Weyprecht's idea was that each interested government should establish one or more stations in the polar regions, and that scientific work should be done simultaneously at all stations according to a previously co-ordinated plan. Weyprecht's plan was discussed by an international conference which met at Hamburg in 1879. The delegates at this conference formed themselves into a permanent International Polar Commission whose task was to make further and more detailed plans. In 1880 a Second International Polar Conference met at Berne, and a Third met at St Petersburg in 1881. As a result of the work done by these conferences the First International Polar Year was organised in 1882–83. Eleven countries—Austria, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Great Britain, Holland, Norway, Russia, Sweden and U.S.A.—set up and manned for a year twelve stations in the Arctic and two in the Antarctic. The field work completed, the Fourth* and Fifth5 International Polar Conferences met in Vienna in 1884 and Munich in 1891, and arranged publication of the scientific results, which filled 27 volumes. At the Fifth Conference the International Polar Commission was dissolved, its work being completed.