THE FOREBODINGS OF KITCHENER.

North Otago Times, Volume CIV, Issue 13656, 26 August 1916, Page 1

THE FOREBODINGS OF KITCHENER.

——«* i, "IKXOW I SHALL LIE AT SEA." "One remarkable revelation may without impropriety be made-'about Lord Kitchener," says the Manchester Guardian. "It is said that he had a : sort jot' ; foreboding of an accident at sea. So much was this the case that he never crossed from Dover to Calais without; wearing a lifebelt waistcoat, one that he haifspecially made for him in Egypt' before he made his famous advance upon Khartum. Though so often on the sea, and an excellent sailor, lie detested, a sea passage, and never felt comfortable on board any ship, lie always complained that the sea always affected' his otherwise excellent' sight—excellent, ■ that is. considering his age, and how much he had been exposed to tropical sun. Another curious point was that,' whilst he always acquired curios in any part of the world in which he might lie,, lie took care never to allow his purchase ■ to be on the vessel on which he ivasU pasenger.;' , 111 connection with-the above, the Petit Journal quotes the following: "'When-Lord Kitchener came, sonic three mouths ago, to the British front, lie met .at Dunkirk Commandant de Bab aiicoiirl, to whom he mentioned tliat'a Jack Johnson had landed not far from him. 'That did not alarm me,' said the Field-Marshal, 'because I know I shall die at sea.' " Lieut-Colonel Oswald A. Fitzgerald, Lord Kitchener's personal military seeii'lnry, who perished with his chief, paid a visit shortly before his death to some friends in I lie Orkneys whose houio commands a wonderful view of the sen in which 'he Hampshire sank. Ou the day after his arrival Colonel Fitzgerald strolled along' I he shore wilh some other members of Hie house parly, and remarked mi the beauty of Ihe laud anil seascape, " ft is a kind of place that one would chouse to die in," he said quietly, "A place lo live in, rather!" protested one of his companions, "N T o," said Colonel Fitzgerald, " there is a sort, of stately grandeur here that ouo instinctively associates (villi solemn things." A few days later, when he was in London, Colonel Fitzgerald wrote lo his friends: "I.shall be sailing past you to-morrow, and shall think of my pleasant visit and of our talks." On the day after the arrival of his Idler his body was washed up on I lie cowl tyhiclj lie had admired, . ;