KITCHENER'S DEATH.

Press, Volume LXII, Issue 18659, 7 April 1926, Page 14

KITCHENER'S DEATH.

ADMIRALTY AND BOAT STORY.. (kioij oua owv cobbispondmt.) LONDON, February 18. In the House of Commons yesterday, Sir E. Hamilton (L., Orkney and Shetland) asked tho Financial Secretary of the Admiralty whether ho was aware that the small boat in which the lato Lord Kitchener and the late" Colonel Fitzgerald left the Hampshire on June sth, 1916, had been purchased by a private individual, and whether this boat could be acquired by the Admiralty as a national relic. Mr J. 0. C. Davidson replied that the Admiralty did not propose to acquire the" boat. "I cannot find," ho said, "the slightest evidence that Colonel Fitzgerald's body was found in this boat, or that he or Lord Kitchener ever set foot in it. The Admiralty evidence, based on contemporary official^ reports and confirmed by recent enquiries, is that Colonel Fitzgerald's body was picked up at sea by the rescue vessels on the-night of tho disaster, June sth, or early next morning. I take this opportunity' of. adding that the stories rocently circulated in the Press either that, this distinguished officer was picked lip alivo some days after the loss, or that his body was disfigured, are false;

"It is doubtful whether this boat was on board/ the Hampshire on June nth. The evidence which the Admiralty has published as to the attempt to launch the Hampshire's boats is that efforts were made to get Lord Kitchener into the captain's galley, an entirely different boat, but the weight of evidenco is that no boats, but only rafts or float?, got clear of the ship. A fragment of a boat which came ashoro in tho Orkneys is already in the Imperial War Musoum. Another boat came ashore near Thurso, on. the mainland. A Press report in 1921 falsely stated that this latter boat was a dinghy, and contained Colonel Fitzgerald's body. It was, in fact, a 27ft or 30ft whaler, and. was empty." Sir B. Hamilton: Is it not desirable, having .regard to the circumstances of the case, that all information in the possession of tho Admiralty should be published? Mr Davidson: Tho whole of the information in the possession of the Admiralty has been published. Vice-Admiral Sir I?. Hall (U., Eastbourne): Is it not a fact that all the evidence at the Admiralty tends to show that Lord Kitchener never left the Hampshire after tho explosion? '

Mr Beckett (Lab.-Soc, Gateshead): What action does tho Admiralty propose, to take, in view of the information which it has got, with regard to the gross misrepresentations now being made by a section of the Press? Mr Scrymgcour (Ind., Dundee): Will the Admiralty be prepared to receive the evidence of tha fifteen survivors of the disaster? Mr Davidson: The evidence of these survivors, all of them, is in the possession of the Admiralty, and it ia on that evidence that this statement is mado. Commander Fanshawe (U., Clackmannan and Western): As a member of the Court of Enquiry into the loss of this ship, may I ask if the Admiralty is aware that only twelve men were saved from the Hampshire f Mr Davidson: That is absolutely true.