SOLDIER’S MYSTERIOUS DISAPPEARANCE

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LIII, Issue 74, 28 March 1919, Page 6

SOLDIER’S MYSTERIOUS DISAPPEARANCE

FROM STEAMER MAORI. ’MILITARY INQUIRY BEING HELD. (United Press Association.) DUNEDIN, This Day. A Military Court of Inquiry into the disappearance of' Private George Mould, who returned per the Oxfordshire and disappeared from -the Maori on the night of the 3rd February between Wellington and Lyttelton, was opened to-day. Sergt.-Majo.r_Little deposed that he gave the man a steerage ticket at < Wellington and saw him on the Maori and a chum told him he had put Mould to bed. MomfT Rad been drinking, but not sufficiently to impair his mental facultie£ieivt. McCarthy, Military Landing Officer, narrated the steps taken to clear up the mystery, and said that on 22nd or 23rd of February the assistant-pnr-sef on the Maori told him he saw a soldier jump overboard with a handkerchief bound round his eyes on the trip on which the steamer carried the Oxfordshire's men. The purser added that he took no s’.eps to have the man recovered, as milieu a number of persons were on "deck, and he thought action had been ; taken. Lieutenant 'McCarthy further i added tha: on a subsequent trip with a 1 draft : bv the Matatua troopers of that Tdraft* said the Mantua passed the ’body of a soldier floating at sea on 15th February, ' W The Court adjourned till next iuesaav to take fur her evidence. The President said an endeavour would be blade to secure the attendance of the Maori’s assistant purser. Tordsturifs .men.