A STRANGE STORY

Hokitika Guardian, 20 January 1917, Page 3

A STRANGE STORY

A strange story concerning the loss of the Hampshire, the -British cruiser aboard which was Lord Kitchener on his ill-fated journey, has reached Oamarn (says the Mail.) A lady has received a letter from a relative in England 'in which the writer states that a friend of his, the supposed widow of one of those aboard the Hampshire, was startled into hopefulness on receipt of a letter from her husband in Germany, stating that he was a prisoner there, and that his wife would he astonished if she knew who were prisoners with him. That, however, he was not allowed to tell. It will be remembered that there were only one or two survivors from the Hampshire who drifted ashore on a raft amongst the rocks on a rugged part of the Scottish coast, from which perilous position they wore rescued. A storm was raging at the time, and it was'not suggested that the cruiser was torpedoed. If, however, the story is true—and the receipt of the letter from the prisoner in Germany is vouched for—then the Hampshire must have been torpedoed, else how did the man reach Germany as a prisoner of war? It must have been a submarine or a German war vessel that rescued him and others. The story is a remarkable one» but the lady whose husband is reported to bo a prisoner in Germany is sure that that part of tha story is coirect.