HOW KITCHENER. DIED.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXII, Issue 18943, 14 February 1925, Page 2 (Supplement)

HOW KITCHENER. DIED.

ON. DECK AWAITING THE END. Almost instinctively the first chapter to which one turns in Mysteries of the j Sea," by J. G. Lock hart, (a book published by Philip Allan and Co., London), is that which describes Lord Kitchener s last journey. There is not really much mystery about the death of Kitchener, sajs'the author, save what the imaginations of men have woven tound the event. THe Hampshire struck a mine, and sank 15 minutes later. Although she was only it, mile and a-half from shore, only 12 men escaped with their lives. It is fr.mi these suryjvors we have the full story of the tragedy. , " When the explosion occurred bora Kitchener was resting and reading in bi« (Sibin. Four boats were at once lowered, but these were swamped or smashed to pieces almost immediately. Three rafts were then got away with rather better results. But, the evening was bitterly cold, and many of the men, who were half clad, died of exposure. On one of the' rafts alone 43 dead bodies were found; another raft, was dashed against the rocks close to the shore, and a number of men wore killed or drowned. It seems, however, that Lord Kitchener made no attempt to enter either boat, or raft. He came up on deck, and there he stayed until the end, when he went down with the ship. Mr. Lockhart icfers to tlio strange stories repeated so often after Lord Kitchener's death—tliat lie survived the explosion on the Hampshire, that he was the victim of a plot in which his own colleagues were implicated. And he claims that the evidence shows that the Hampshire struck a mine, and that, so far as the Germans were concerned, the sinking was no more than an accident.