SIR HECTOR'S SUICIDE IN PARIS.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1070, 8 March 1911, Page 5

SIR HECTOR'S SUICIDE IN PARIS.

DOUBTS AS TO HIS DEATH. Prominence was given in the "Johannesburg Sunday Times" of March 10, 3007. and other papers in South Africa to tho revival of tho story that Sir Hector Macdonald is still "alive and kicking" in China. Vic give this narrative for what it is worth.

Ever since Wednesday, March 25, 1003, when General Sir Hector Macdonald was alleged to have shot himself in tho Hotel Hegina, Paris, curious rumours have been afloat, all tending to lliroiv doubt on his death. There is at tho present hour in Johannesburg a gentleman who lias lately arrived from the Far East, and ho makes tho following statement:—"l knew General 'Sir Hector Macdonald very well both in Egypt and South Africa. I was in Nan-Kins, one of the ancient capitals of China, some 200 miles up the Yang-tze-Kiang from Shanghai, in December last. I saw ii battalion of Chinese soldiers being drilled in European style on a space in the centre of the. city, and, feeling curious. 1 walked up to where three officers were standing. Ono of them was Sir Hector Macdonald. . '

A Chance Meeting. "He was c!=an shavon, but atherwisc ho had altered very Jittle since the occasion of my last meeting with him in Pretoria. 1 was almost breathless with astonishment. I was about to speak to him when his eyes met mine. I was then about two yards from him. lie turned rapidly round to one ol' the other officers, and said something quickly in Chinese. The officer, almost springing to me, shouted: 'Leave this ground at once, or we will put you where your friends won't find you in a hurry.' I left Nau-lCing that day for Shanghai, and 1 found tliat the fact that Sir Hector Macdonald was in that country was holieved by a great many English people." Almost a year ago, a Scotsman who came to South Africa in.one of the coolie ships from lions-Kong, openly stated in Johannesburg that General Macdouald was alive and well in China, lie also stated that tho general had joined the Chinese Army, and that the last time he had seen'him was in Chin-Kiang.

The Death in Paris. Tho facts surrounding the alleged suicide of Sir Hector Macdonald have alwavs been suspicious. It is alleged that on" Friday, March 20, 1003, he went to reside at' the Hotel Rcgina, an obscure hotel in the Rue <!o liivoli, near the Louvre and Tnilcrics Gardens, Paris. On the following Wednesday. March 25, it is stated by a chambermaid who was engaged in tlic hotel that while reading an English newspaper, lie suddenly jumped up and turned deathly pale. Ihe paper contained a paragraph to tho effect that General Macdonald was to be court-martialled in connection with certain charges mado against lii'ii whib ha commanded the British troops in Ceylon. He font for tho Paris edition of .the "New Yorlc Herald," and whilo awaiting its arrival he calmly smoked a cigar. On receiving the p-.K/i-r 'from tho hands of a waiter he folded it up, nut it in his paclret, and proceeded to his room upstair*. Two hours afterwards the same chambermaid found linn dead on his bed, with a revolver bullet through his forehead.

No lnq:.-3st. No inquest was ever held on the bedy. During Macdonald's campaign in the Oranijo River Colony there was attached to his staff a Scotsman who had resided for manv years in Tasmania. 'When Macdonald was alleged to have shot himself in Paris, this man was in the city. Ho immediately went to tho Hotel Kegina to seo the body of his old commander. Ho was refused admittance, to the room, and, becoming violent, was forcibly ejected from tho hotel. This man believes to this day that Sir Hector Macdonald is alive, and the world—well, the world will hope that he is right. Among tho small army of war correspondents assembled in Tokio at tho outbreak of the Kusso-Japancso War, the statement that General Macdonald was alive and well in China was a matter of common gossip.