DEATH OF KITCHENER.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIX, Issue 21159, 16 April 1932, Page 2 (Supplement)

DEATH OF KITCHENER.

SPY'S FALSE CLAIM.

OPERATIONS IN AMERICA.

EXPOSED BY BRITISH OFFICER.

It is stated by the Daily Express that tho following is the real truth—told for the first time in a London drawing room in February—of Fritz Joubert Duquesne, the strange flamboyant personality who claims to have been a master spy who was responsible for the death of Lord Kitchener. A sensation has been caused in the United States by the recent publication of the book which purports to bo the life story of Fritz Duquesne. Colonel Norman Thwaites, who in 1917 was head of the British Intelligence Service in the

United States, says ho knows all about that strange war-time figure Fritz Duquesne. " Certainly Duquesne was a spy, and a good one from the German point of view," says Colonel Tliwaites. " But whatever else lie did, he certainly could not have had any hand in the loss of the Hampshire and the death of Lord Kitchener. My records show that in June, 1916, when the Hampshire was sunk, Duquesne was in America. I had him arrested in New York in December, 1917, and held for extradition and trial in England on suspicion of being concerned with a bomb explosion aboard a British ship in which three English sailors were killed. " When Duquesne came iuto my hands he was passing under the name of Captain Claude Staugliton, of the Australian Light Horse. Ho was in British uniform, with a string of medals up—the D.5.0., the M.C., the Croix do Guerre, the Boer war ribbons, and four wound stripes. When I cross-examined, him it was soon

clear that he was an impostor. We had his rooms searched and among an extraordinary mass of papers was a. document in German, signed by tlie German ConsulGeneral of a South American Republic, which stated:—

" ' It is a pleasure for mo to recommend to my countrymen • the bearer of this, Mr. Fritz Duquesne, captain of engineers in tho Boer army, very warmly. The same gentleman has on many occasions given many notable services to our good German cause.' "We traced Duquesne's record after that. He had had a remarkable life. No was a Boer, and had fought against us in South Africa. During the world war ho acted as a German agent throughout. South and North America. At different; times ho passed under the names of F.ordham and Niacud (Ducain spelt backwards).

" We had evidence that Duquesne was implicated in the explosion aboard the British ship Tennyson. A tin box supposed to contain films was loaded aboard the Tennyson. Delayed action bombs were concealed in that box, and when the ship was at. sea they exploded. Three sailors were killed, and the ship was terribly damaged, but managed to reach port. Suspicion also attached to Duquesne in regard to a similar explosion aboard another British ship."