DID THE HUNS KILL KITCHENER ?

Gisborne Times, Volume XLVIII, Issue 4474, 15 February 1917, Page 7

DID THE HUNS KILL KITCHENER ?

After six months the Germans are trying to claim the credit of sinking the Hampshire, and thus cansing the death of Lord Kitchener.

In order to do so (says the London Daily Express) they have invented _ a mythical story of finding a letter in a bottle addressed to Mr s Smith, of South Shields, by a member of the crew of the Hampshire. The Daily Express correspondent at South Shields has made inquiries, and finds that .there is no Mrs Smith in South Shields who had a husband or other relative on board the Hampshire.

The stor v i s told by the Frankfurter Zeitung of December 1: “A bottle which was washed ashore at Bestaranoy, in the Stavanger Fiord contained a paper on which were written the following words in English: “TORPEDOED TWICE.”

“H.M.S. Hampshire—We have kept well up to now, but how much longer we can hold out we know not. Our boat makes water fast. It cannot last much longer. We can sight no land. “Good-bye, all of you. We know we shall be avenged. Our lads will see. to that. “We were torpedoed twice, and we had no time to fire again before the LT boat disappeared, and we began to sink. Five of us are all exhausted with rowing and bailing out water. This is the last you will see of us. If this is found have it sent to Mrs, Smith, South Shields. “The message is evidently genuine. It was handed to the British Consul. The Hampshire, in which, as is well known, Lord Kitchener was drowned, was torpedoed on June sth.”

ANOTHER TALE. In addition the Frankfurter Zeitung publishes the following message from Christiania:— “The genuine nature of the message found in a bottle thrown overboard by some of the crew of the Hampshire is proved beyond a doubt. Persons who have spoken with the finders and who have seen the message declare-that it was very well preserved, that the hand writing was quite clear, and the English perfect. There is no longer any mystery about it. People returning from England assure me that it has been common knowledge for a long time that the Hampshire was sunk by a submarine, but out of regard of the public feelings the authorities have shrunk from admitting it.”