IS MARCHAND A MYTH ?

Taranaki Herald, Volume XLVII, Issue 11391, 5 December 1898, Page 1

IS MARCHAND A MYTH ?

♦ The following appeared in a recent I issue of Morning, a London journal : — " Two great nations are seriously perturbed over the presence of Major Marchand at Fashoda. Now, alter careful inquiry, I have secured evidence of the most positive character that Major Marchand does noo exist. I cannot go so far as to say that he never did exist ; for, as a matter of fact, he was killed on attempting to enter the Soudan. There is a person at Fashoda masquerading as Major Marchand. His real name is MacDougall , he was born of poor but honest parents on the banks of Loch Lomond, and was present at the battle of Omdurman as a corporal of the Cameron Highlanders. The Sirdar knows that he is a fraud ; so do all who accompanied the j expedition to Fashoda ; so does Lord Salisbury. The secret history of this extraordinary affair is as follows :—: — The Prime Minister has had many rebuffs from France, and he has been eager to discover a method of scoring off that redoubtable diplomatic adversary. % If Major Marchand were only to be ' discovered up the Nile, and Lord Salis-

I ' t ' bury were to refuse to concede nn inch of Nile teiritory to the French, the wished for triumph would be gained. Hasty cipher telegrams passed between Omduiman and Downing Street, and there was concocted this amazing plot of the imaginary Marchand. Failing the real Mnrchnnd, the man MacDougall ! who bore a strong facial resemblance to the French explorer, and who was induced to play the part by pronrse of substantial secret reward, was to take his place. He is at Fashoda now ; France is hoodwinked, and England stands firm The whole secrecy of the Fashoda business, the Sirdar's ambiguous telegrams, the scraps of information doled out to newspaper men at Cairo, are now explained ; they were intended to pave the way for the sensation caused bj- the publication of the despatches." .