The Gisborne Times PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING GISBORNE, MARCH 27, 1903. TO-DAY’S SENSATION.

Gisborne Times, Volume IX, Issue 851, 27 March 1903, Page 2

The Gisborne Times PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING GISBORNE, MARCH 27, 1903. TO-DAY’S SENSATION.

The shocking news of the suicide of one of Great Britain’s bravest generals will be received with the deepest regret throughout all English-speak-ing communities. It is indeed a sad tiling that an officer; who has done so much for his country a» Sir Hector MacDonald, one of the bravest of the brave, should at last meet death by. his own hand, with a grave scandal hanging over his head. What the nature of the charge is has not yet been made known ; but that it was not a light one is proved by the fact of his peremptory recall, and the ordering of a court-martial. When it became known that there was to he such a. trial, everyone naturally hoped that it would result in an honorable acquittal, for Sir Hector was one of the most popular and admired officers in the British army. He had won ms way to the front by sheer merit combined with the finest lighting qualities of the Britisher. It is evident from the brief reports to hand in the'cables, that the charge preyed upon the general’s mind ; his aloofness shows that lie felt he was under a cloud until his reputation had been cleared. The taking of his own life,

unfortunately, removes one of the main factors in the disproving of the charges, and possibly fo some of Hie meaner minds the terrible act of selfdestruction will he taken as a proof of guilt. We prefer to believe that

the dead man was innocent of whatever the charge might have been, and that it was the mental anguish caused by being called on to answer such a charge that drove him to the taking of his own life, and not any sense of guilt. Naturally New Zea-

landers will feel a deeper interest

t he general from the fact that he was so recently a visitor to our shores, aim was then honored as the British hero we’aJl know him to he. Even

it there should happen to be any rca:enable ground £or the charge laid against him, his good deeds will out- , . " auv small delinquencies. Our .smile " . ~ . , , ••■hat the memory <u the toad hope is . untarnished general will prove to though of course all must lame,

—'t, his

aU of self-destruction during the per-

iod of mental torture