DR JAMESON.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1262, 7 May 1896, Page 9

DR JAMESON.

A PLOT TO RESCUE THE RAIDER

A DARING SCHEME. 2<7oi)t Our Special Correspondent. Loxdox, March 19. During the passage home of Dr Jim, a variety of vague rumours were current as to a plot having been formed to enable tho gallant officers of the Transvaal raid to escape the possible unpleasantnesses of I "facing the music." Tho St James's ■ Gazette has published the following "circumstantial account" given it by a young man who stated that ho was intimately acquainted with the abortive I enterprise. Perhaps it would be unkind to remark that tho narrative suggests that the plotters must have been suffering from an aggravated form of the malady which is best described as " Dr JimJams " :—" At. the time when Dr Jameson was announced to have commenced his homeward journey, four men, tired with enthusiasm for the doctor, determined to win fame by rescuing him during his voyage home. The plot, I believe, was tho outcome of a discussion as to what punishment the doctor would receive, aud these young men determined ho should not receive any punishment, and immediately set about lo devise a plan to eli'ccl: his escape. They took into their confidence a member of the Ueform Committee who has escaped from Johannesburg, and certainly had the doctor any wish to give the authorities the slip he had a very good chance. "At a well-known yachting centre on the south const lies, ready for immediate use, one of the fastest steam yachts alloat. Site i 3 tho property of a Russian nobleman, and her tonnage is considerable. She carries two Maxim-Nordcnfeklt guns and a large quantity of ammunition. Arrangements wore made to hire this boat with crew complete at £I2OO per month. This boat was to cruise off I'shant and await the arrival of the Victoria, with Dr Jameson and his officers on board. In the meantime a private despatch was prepared and a young fellow who was a friend of Sir John Willoughby was taken ir.to the confidence of tho conspirators and deputed to deliver it foDrJim or Sir John on tho arrival of tho boatatPoit Said, where it was expectod the Victoria would coal. JJo was to disguise himself as a collier or in some other way that would enable him to get on board without creating suspicion. The despatch contained instructions to Dr Jim, how lie could effect his escape, and telling him that he would be get imprisoned on his return, and strongly advidng him to escape and return to Charterland, where tho Government would not dare to take him from the men who adored him. In the event of Dr Jameson agreeing, tho escape was to be managed in the following fashion. THE I'LAN OF ESC A IT,. " During tho night preceeding the Victoria's arrival off Ushant, Dr Jameson was to exhibit a red light from his cabin window. By this the men on board the yacht would know the Victoria. It was intended that the yacht itself should carry no lights. On the red light being shown, an answering light would be exjgj

hibited on the yachb, and Dr Jameson and as many of his officers as cared to accompany him were to repair to the stern of the Victoria, and under cover of darkness were to fasten a short rope-lad-der to the rail. The yacht was then to come under the stern of the Victoria and make pretence of a collision. In the confusion that would have naturally ensued Dr Jameson and his brother officers were to slip over and clamber on board the yacht, which would then have steamed away at the rate of twenty-one knots, and as the speed of the Victoria wa3 only twelve and a quarter there would have been no chance of overtaking her, and before the Victoria could have given any alarm to the authorities on shore the yacht would have been many miles away. " Under peculiar circumstances, which I do not choose to state, 1 became pos se3aed of the above particulars, and had the good fortune to persuade my friend, who was a moving spirit in the affair, to desist. The conspirators had money, pluck, and the mean 3 to have carried out their scheme, and it took a long time to show them how fruitless and mad such a project would have been, and that it would have damaged Jameson rather than helped him. What surprised mo most was the unswerving notion that thore would have been no doubt that Dr Jameson would have availed himself of the opportunity. The young fellow who was to have boarded the Victoria had already started, but a timely warning to the authorities upset all calculations, and thus the little plot, which might have had such a startling development, failed."