FAKED U-BOAT BOAST.

Lake Wakatip Mail, Issue 3234, 3 April 1917, Page 7

FAKED U-BOAT BOAST.

ELABORATE LIE ON THE DEATH OF KITCHENER. A BOTTLED LETTER. The Germans are now trying to claim the credit of sinking the Hampshire, •nd the death of Lord Kitchener, says the London Dairy Express. In order to do so they have invented a mythical Btory of finding a letter in a bottle addressed to Mrs. 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 LIE. The story is told by the " Frankfurter Zeitung" of December 1 in the following Wolff Bureau telegram from Stavaoger: "A bottle which wa* washed ashore at Bestaracnoy, in the Stavanger fiord, contained a paper on which were written the following words n English: — ii.M.S. Hampshire.— We have kepi uetf up to now, out now much lunger we van uotd out we know not. Our boat muses water last. It cannot uit* uiuhc longer. »c 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 wo had no time to tire again More the t boat, disappeared, and w*» began to sink. Five of us are here, ail exhausted with rowing and baling out water. This iB the List you will hear of us. If this is found, have it sent to Mrs. Smith, South Shields. " The message was evidently genuine. It was to-day handed to the British Consul. The Hampshire, in which, as is well known, i,ord Kitchener wa> drowned, was torpedoed on June o." "PROVED BltfOKD DOUBT." In addition, the "Frankfurter Zeitung" publishes the following message from Christiania:— 'The genuine nature of the message found in a bottle thrown overobard by some of the yre* of the Hampshire is proved beyond a doubt. Persons who nave spoken with the finders and who have seen the message declare that it was verv well preserved, that the bandwritmg'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, hat out of regard for the public's feelings the (authorities have shrunk from admitting it."