A NEW THEORY

Hokitika Guardian, 18 February 1926, Page 4

A NEW THEORY

C.U'SF OF KITCHENER'S DEATH. LONDON', ,Jan. 12. 'i he spy myth, while not yet quite laid to rest, is being supplanted by other theories of tin* cause of Lord Kitchener’s death. It would appear that a profussor of met. >oro logy at Harvard. Mr A. G. M'Adie. has published some .studies of war weather, and in tin's he dis usses the 10.-s of the Hampshire from the point of view of in's own seiemv*.

The decision that she would steam out of Scapa Flow by a western cluiniicl and thi'ii proceed- north in the lev of the Orkneys seem- to have been bared iiiniii a meteorological forecast prepared upon the flagship Iron Duke. According to Professor M’Adie. those "bn made tin's forecast did not comprehend what type of “.storm structure” prevailed at. the time. All analysis o| it shows that a definite wellknown type of cyclone was passing from the Atlantic to the North Sea. and about to recurve before beading north-west into like Arctic regions. .Accordingly “ihc counsel of the wea-ther-wise would Inivri been to wait and follow the depression rather than to try to precede it.” I’rofessor M'Adie reasons that, if the .storm centre had

passed over the Orkenys a few hours earlier, another channel for the passage of the Hampshire to the open sett would have been chosen, and she would have escaped the mine Again, “if the fury of the northwest wind had been less, a rescue would liave been effected.” The general conclusion is reached that the life of Lord Kitchener—-and possibly the destiny of Russia, that was soon to break up in revolution—“hung upon

a forecast of weather made* that June afternoon in Scapa Flow,” which wa be says, “not scientific, but merely the forecast of seamen trying to v the movement of clouds and the force of the gale.”