WITHOUT PREJUDICE

Dominion, Volume 19, Issue 79, 28 December 1925, Page 6

WITHOUT PREJUDICE

NOTES AT RANDOM

(By

T.D.H.)

The interesting thing about the Ford polar flight is that so far nobody mentioned in connection with it appears to be taking any chances by going on it.

Tb« difference between Bolshevism and Capitalism is that one person in every 8896 in Russia owns' a -motpr-cSr and in the United States bfle person in 7 own# one.—But then a true Bolshevik would sooner sit at home and let his whiskers .grow th>m tear about the country, in a flivver.

The old story that. Lord Kitchener’s death on June 5, 1916, was due to treachery has once more received an official denial. This time the allegation apparently is that the date of H.M.S. Hampshire’s departure from the Orkneys for Russia was an open secret. The previous story in circulation four years back, and used as the basis of a film-play, was more specific. It was based on the assertions of a German woman, lilbie Boecker, ■ who had freely boasted in Berlin ’ that. she had received 10,000 marks for sending the German Government information of Lord Kitchener’s impending departure, and was responsible for his death. According to the story she and her husband were living in London at the time, and the information was given them casually in the course of conversation by a British officer with whom they , were dining.

Frau Boecker’s interesting story fails to fit in with the facts, however. The War Office reply in 1921 to reports 'in circulation about this lady’s alleged part in the tragedy was that - she- was an irresponsible and harmless enemy alien. . On' May 8, 1916, four' weeks before the Hampshire sailed, and “long before any arrangements had ..been made for Lord Kitchener to journey in her,” Fran-Boecker was brought before the Marylebone Police Court for having gone beyond the five-mile radius from her residence in which she was allowed. She was sentenced to two months imprisonment and ordered to be deported on completion of the term. Oii June 29 she was deported, and as she was under lock and key from May 8 until she was shipped out of the country her story was obviously no more than an ornamental fiction.

The official version of Lord Kitchen, er’s death is that the German submarine U 75 laid thirteen mines at the western entrance to Scapa Flow at the time of the Battle of Jutland, a week before the Hampshire left by that passage for Russia. Twelve of these mines were swept up by the fleet sweepers patrolling the entrances to Scapa Flow, but the thirteenth was missed. The particulars of the mine-laying by the U 75 were obtained from. German sources later, and on the number of mines said to have been laid being compared with the number swept up about this period it was found that one mine, must have been missed, and that apparently it was this fatal thirteenth mine that the Hampshire had struck. A vear later, on May 4, 1917, the U 75, while in company with another submarine in the White Sea, attacked a British munition ship, the Palmbranch, and both submarines were sunk by gunfire, The identity of the U 75 was established by a buoy liberated by her after she sank, giving her number and asking the finder to advise the German Admiralty.

The late Mrs. Parker, formerly of South Canterbury, long after the Hampshire vanished, refused to believe that her brother Lord Kitchener was;, dead, and for a year or two at least cherished a belief that he was a prisoner in Germany. Many relatives of famous persons who disappear tragically cling to the end to a belief that in some manner they escaped, and rumours and reports of continued existence in such cases are by no means uncommon. For example, the late General Sir Hector McDonald was reported as alive on many occasions after his suicide in Paris many years back. He was supposed to have served in the Russo-Japanese War, and in the Great War there were newspaper reports that he was in the Russian army. Marshal Ney was reported after his death to have been resident in America, and many other similar cases could be quoted, the evidence in all of them fading away to nothing when tracked down.

With television of a sort proclaimed as an accomplished fact there is .no knowing what is coming next. Sir Oliver Lodge lias recently made a plea for the study of the science of prediction. He points out that mankind already does a good deal in the way of foretelling the future. We draw up railway time-tables; we predict eclipses; we. mark up diary engagements; we rely on the stability of the Bank of England. Indeed, just in proportion as we become an ordered community is it possible to map out the future course of events. Alost men can say with reasonable certainty what they will be doing at . this, hour tomorrow night: a privilege .they;..Would not enjoy to the same extent if. they w.ere .members of an antediluvian tribe in an African jungle. But: it looks as if Str Oliver Lodge will: need a very superior television . apparatus -.indeed <o detect in advance the intrusions of Chance on mankind’s future. •

A HOT-WEATHER SONG. I feel so excessively lazy,’ ’ I neglect what .I oughtn't to should! Mv notion of work is so hazy ■ That I couldn’t to toil if T would! I feel so exceedingly, silly That I say all I shouldn’t to ought! And my mind-is as frail as a lily; It would break with the Weight of a thought! —Don Alarquis. A big burly man called at the rectory, and when, the door was opened asked to see the rector’s wife, a woman well known for her charitable impulses. "Aladam,” lie addressed' 'her i« a broken voice, “I wish to draw your attention to the terrible plight of a poor family in this district. _ The father is dead, the mother is too ill to work, and the nine children are 'starving. They are about to be turned into the street unless someone pays their arrears in rent, which amount to £lO or £12,” “How terrible!” exclaimed the lady. “May I ask who you are?” The sympathetic visitor applied his handkerchief to his eyes. “I’m the landlord,” he sobbed. A married couple were knocked down by a motor. The car dashed away. The police arrived and found the couple bursting with indignation, especially the wife., , . “Do you know the numbei; of the car?” asked tlie policeman.’' “Yes,” replied the husband; ‘’by a strange coincidence tlie first two numbees formed my age and tlie scco’id, two tlie age of my wife.” “John,” said the wife, “we will let the matter drop at once!" IDENTITY. When I am old I shall not ba Myself but other I; And’ I shall have dim memory When 1 am old, of Youth and thee; No sweet desires will torture me, And Death will cause no sigh: When I am old I shall not be Myself but other I. <-JR, W. Davison.