THE POISONING OF GENERAL MAUDE.

Press, Volume LV, Issue 16435, 31 January 1919, Page 2

THE POISONING OF GENERAL MAUDE.

CONQUEROR OF BAGDAD.

An interesting account of the last hours of that great soldier General Maude, the conqueror of Bagdad, is given by Eleanor Egan in "The War >n tne Cradle of the World," recently published. She was at the lost meal at which he was present, and he came in late. She writes:— "He looked '< ired and drawn, but I imagine nobody ever thought seriously of illness in connexion with him. Ho was so splendidly stalwart. Even ihen he was in excellent spirits, as he usually was, but he rather startled ufc with, an announcement thfit he was not going vo have any lunch. > " 'About once a month*' he said. 'I' find it does mo good to go without food in the middle of the day.' "Then he leaned on the back of his chair and made some characteristically humorous enquiries. . . . He excused himself presently and. went down along the terrace to lus room. "As soon as he had gone I remarked that he looked, very ill, but was assured that he was merely tired. His military secretary did say that he 'would soon be done for' if he didn't give himself a short leave. He .had not had a day's leave since, he took command of the army." He was sebn by the consulting medical officer to the expedition, nnd told that) he must go to bed. A little later it was known that he had been seized with cholera in its most virulent form- The writer came back from an excursion and found her servant crouched in the dodrway or a cabin: "His face was buried in his arms and he was weeping.- ' " 'Oh, lady saliib! Jady sahib! England's great 1' "That was all. I thought it rather wonderful. "He waspoisoned,. probably by tho Germans, with a cup of coffee and milk at a native entertainment. The diseaso developed within the right period <.f hours after be had drunk that coffee and that milk. It is not true, as has been said, that the coffee was a cup of particular ceremony and that he was compelled by respect for custom to drink it. It was placed before him as.'a usual and to-be-expected courtesy. He oouldi •drink it or he could not. ... I been-asked so (iften, '"Why—-why did' he doit? Why? Because he was a gentleman." .. It is a curious fact that he had refused to bo inoculated, saying that "it would be a waste of serum, because no man of his age ever got cholera.""