STORY OF THE HAMPSHIRE.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXIX, Issue 1664, 20 January 1917, Page 4

STORY OF THE HAMPSHIRE.

A strange story concerning' the loss of the Hampshire, the British cruiser aboard which was Lord Kitchener on his. ill-fated journey, has reached Oamaru (says the Mail). A lady has received a letter from a relative in England in which the writer states that a friend of one of those aboard the Hampshire, who had given up her husband for lost when the Hampshire went down, 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 be 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 ashdre on a raft amongst the rocks on a rugged part of the Scottish coast, from which perilous position they were 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 be a prisoner in Germany is sure that that part of the story is correct.