After years of hardship since the 1880s and an especially difficult winter in 1906, the British government offered to evacuate the island in 1907. The Tristanians held a meeting and decided to refuse, despite the crown's warning that it could not promise further help in the future. No ships called at the islands from 1909 until 1919, when HMS "Yarmouth" finally stopped to inform the islanders of the outcome of World War I. The Shackleton–Rowett Expedition stopped in Tristan for five days in May 1922, collecting geological and botanical samples before returning to Cape Town. Among the few ships that visited in the coming years were the RMS "Asturias", a Royal Mail Steam Packet Company passenger liner, in 1927, and the ocean liners RMS "Empress of France" in 1928, in 1929, and RMS "Empress of Australia" in 1935. In 1936, "The Daily Telegraph" of London reported the population of the island was 167 people, with 185 cattle and 42 horses.