A SENSATIONAL STORY

Hokitika Guardian, 16 June 1923, Page 4

A SENSATIONAL STORY

11 ICC Ton MACDONALD'S FATE. MYSTERY QUEST IN SPAIN. ; Many still disavow tho suicide of General Sir Hector Macdonald, which was reported to have taken place in Paris when he was recalled to answer a disgraceful criminal charge. Round the name of General Ivuroki, s who has just died in Japan, there used i to he a most remarkable legend, writes j Selfridge Hatmagan to an American s paper. He was half a Pole, and his ; name is not Japanese'. Tie was a sol- 1 iller of great liriilianee, and fought all t the battles of the Russo-Japanese war, I when the invading -Japanese army i broke through from Korea into Man- 1 churia. At the end of the war he disappeared into private life and came : iit for less than the honours conferred s upon other Japanese generals and ad- I minds, ami, unlike other successful 1 commanders, never visited Europe, t Partly this and partly the knowledge ; tintt he was not Japanese was respon- 1 sihle for the fantastic legend widely ; current at the time of the war that t lie was the late General Sir Hector s .Macdonald, who had never committed < suicide at all. but emigrated and he- ' came a Japanese officer. ' '

The fleeter .Macdonald legend is a strangely persistent one. During the Great War a coinnnm superstition was that Mackonsoii, the Gorman general, was really Macdonald. Rut the must, circumstantial of all these persistent stories is one attributed to a seaman, giving Ids name as Donald Ivors, and stating that Tic arrive,! in Rristol on the slooo Argent. His story is : "I -erveil for twenty-one years In tlm Gordon Highlanders. I was diseb.nged in I! *I t. ill Fort (.‘oilier, Gospel!. Having a hit of cash. I went to Sonin to take up I mil growing, as ! had iiad an oiler given me by a young ollii er who left the regiment Iwo years before to undertake the growing in grape vines. "I join. <1 this gentleman at the port in St. Seba-l in n, Spain, and we drove to the town of fruit. From here ive went inland, and for three years I acted a- hi> overseer. The vineyard was situated at the foot of the 'Pyrenees, and there was very little company. oxrool that of the local grandees. THE MYSTERY (,)FEST. "One evening, however. I was asked to wait at talde. All the oilier servants had left for a local fete, and a guest had arrived unexpectedly. I waited on my master and the gue--l. and from the very firs! I had an impression that 1 know the man's voice. II is face was. hidden bv a great beard, ami the hair was nearly all gone from "I sal outside the room in which iho master and his guest were sealed, and not with any intention to spy. I heart! a few words which, in connect inn will; my previous suspicions, made things (pule clear to me. The master said: " Yon should return even now. The evidence is still good, and there are hundreds who would hack your word against your accusers. It i- si pity that you did- not face the music! .Man. it Would lie over and done with now. and—"•.ill. you do not know how strung the t in-tini a ant in 1 evidence was against me! I bad enemies-—bitter enemies ever since I began to inuttnl. up. Little tilings were distuned and statements si twisted that ! should have been condemned on 11- • rI nred evidence a lone.'

" I van innocent, l.bat thought has kept ni" strong for years, i have suffered ~i.hat_ was only natural —but I nn :m to live mv hie to lhe end. I have (lone well over beyond, ttml hearing in Lisbon that you were exporting a rare wine, and the name being mi well-known to m •. together with your • ;t e-j-u'enl iotied ambition. I railed. ■ Uh o are \on going to do now I v.uul-1 still joltiso ton to face tin charge. Time It-, norite,l for you ''. '(nesses have gone, and the enemies you then feared are powerless to harm yeit. Go borne, i-. my advice, and yon will ! at" the whole country belnnd ; oil.’ “Win;!, the answer to tlti- modi! have begn I do not know. I opened (lie dui.-r, and nni for the world could I l.'-eo my eyes lioui selling titani in" - face. Ho recognised me ill’s nohim. I v. as leaving the room ; -u he said : "I AM A MEMORY." ' li- a long 11 me. i vurs, since you | " - it is. Sir I lector.’ ! blurted out j -nd i saw bis face become clouded at the name. I .stood like a great gawk. I not knowing what, to do: but Kir I Ice- I tor put me at mv ease bv saying: I "I am but a memory, !•. ers. Tho-e j v, !m know me did nut believe. ! am a j stranger in a strange land, but it ha., j given me ‘belter after my own country j tinned mo down. I have heard vari-j ous rumour--, as to my bring alive. ‘ ’limy do not worry me. To England .< I’m dead: only in dear old .Scotland toy heart !-. ahvavs turning. I'd give the Health of the world to si( again tip I:v Nairn; but ’ "'Why d< n't you:-' asked my master. J have some null still, and it you'd only go back -take Ivors with you —you'd eomo out on to]). Heavens, man, the past- is dead '

‘•‘.Scandal never dies,' almost sobhe;! Hie onre great general. 'l'm old now—too old t.) hear the snubs of snobs. No, i'll live mv life as I have done for the years I hat have int erven ed. I'll let tie* 1 tlead pnsj hurv itsdead. To-morrow I go v, hence I came.' "He went away in the morning. 1 hale heard no more of him since 1 lefi my ma-ter to trace Sir Hector. Fve failed. "1 saw him in IPlf> at the village of lbrim, near the river Xive. He went towards Rareeloiia: at least I traced him in flint dir—ll: | went acros-t into Portugal and joined up as instructor to iho levies going in the front. I thought that Kir Hector would possible join up, too: but though T made ail son ; pi inquiries 1 hate never been able to trace him. "My master, being more or le/s „f an invalid, had taken no pari in the lighting. Alter the scrapping was over T went to sea. and always when T came to a port of Spain 1 made inquiries. "The only due I ever got was that a man of the appeannee I gave had been sent to go on hoard a P. and 0. hound for Egypt and the East. T believe that the brave and gallant general i- working out his life in the regions south of the Nile."