A NATION-WIDE RUMOUR THAT EXCITED BRITAIN.

Pukekohe & Waiuku Times, Volume 6, Issue 290, 6 July 1917, Page 3 (Supplement)

A NATION-WIDE RUMOUR THAT EXCITED BRITAIN.

THRILLS THAT DID NOT TAKE PLACE.

For fcity-eight hours on end Great Britain has often to thank Germany and her Zeppelins for excitement and anticipation tiiat are found particularly refreshing in these somewhat dull times for homestayers. It \v,»s so a week ago. And now that the story of the disappointing nation-wide rumour may be told without indiscretion, the particulars will make an entertaining item for oversea friends, writes a correspondent of an American paper. Incidentally they will justify a charitable appreciation of the fact that British journalists are not responsible for the creations.

Our most recent experience of this kind was, as we now know, due to what was perhaps the most remarkable sequence of 'coincidences that has afflicted an expectant nation. THRILLS MADE ENJOYABLE. I should add, in passing, and in explanation of our attitude of mind, that so far from rumours' of impending attacks on our islands creating the panic desired by the enemy, the chief result is similar to thtn experienced when announcement is made that some new and particularly interesting performance is due at Drury Lane, or other favourite theatre.

On the occasion I am speaking of we learndi from sources as wide apart as Leith, on the east eoa.st of Scotland, to Harwich and Dover, on the southeast and south coast of England, that disaster whs ap!iin impending. The storv took varying shape. Which only made the thrills and throbbings audi anticipations more delightfully enjoyable and preeiouH. First of all we were told, with circumstance and detail, that a. fleet was to hind at a point mentioned, tiie raid to be accomplished by Zeppelin bombarders and submarine de/itroyers of shipping and mined areas.

Then came the news, also circumstantially detailed, of a battle in the North Sea, and of dead and injured sailors being landed in the darkest hours of night, without lights, in order that the nation might be kept from knowledge of the overwhelming disaster and defeat that had befallen a portion of the fleet. One version declared tlie Grand Feet had 'bc!?n more severely smashed than at the battle of Jutland. Another that a cruiser squadron had been ailmost totally wrecked, "with few survivors" to tell the sorrowful tale. While tlios'e of us who were in newspaper service were fusing the telephone wires with the lightning urgency of messages to places between .John o' Groat's and Land's End, others were rushing madly and without regard to speed limit regulations from point to point on the coast line in search of the raiding squadrons and evidences of their success, which we were assured could be found in various vaguely described places. Those who stayed in London learned later that the military had been called out at one important town, and had been instructed to warn the population to keep indoors, but also to assure them there was" no danger. Scarcely liad the newspapers despatched "specials" to the area indicated than fresh corrosi>ondents telegraphed that tlie London " Volunteers," enrolled for spee.'.U emergencies, to which 'many journalists telong, had been ordered to mobilise without delay and' to prepare for duty in the area indicated in a preceding message.

ALL DOUBT REMOVED. While the excitement, now at its height, wm still being fed delightfully by additional explicit statements that the constabulary in two counties already referred to had been called out en masse, there came reports that "every officer on leave had been summoned to return without delay," and that from almost every point in the British Isles' they were rushing where duty called and danger to the homeland threatened. Inquiries verified these later statements, and vifry few of us any longer doubted that something serious had happened or was afoot.

That was on Saturday, late in the evening, and the whole of the remainder of the night and of the early morning was spent by public and newspaper men alike in frantic motoring all over the country on the eastern side and to the south-east. Nothing rewarded the seekers after sensation and news, and at breakfast time on Sunday morning a multitude of disappointed men and women were making their way back to the metropolis, or to their nearest home town, weary to death of their journeyings, but all overjoyed nt the excitement they had so luckily shared in.

Ahout noon the stories begun again, and a.s a member of the Press Club who had just arrived from a coast resort fifty miles or so from London declared there could be no mistake about the naval battle having taken place. everyone went to the place indicated, urged by their colleague's '.assurance that lie had seen the wounded seamen being carried to the hospitals on stretchers.

It was at this point the whole story was battered into nothingness, and the extra-ordinary coincidence began gradually to reveal themselves.

Telegram?! had heen dn-patched to all officers on leave who were units of the various regiments of an eastern district command. Arrangements had also heen made with one of the railway companies to have ready transportation for a whole divison. But the emergency was due only. a>! wd discovered early on Monday morning, to the fact that the injured men were only old r-ases who were being transferred from a local iiosoital hitherto accommodating sailor-' and soldiers hut in future to he allocated to the use of military casualties only.

It was also trin that the London Volunteers had heell ordered to mobilise and tu proceed to a. spot indicated "for training." And that the police had been tune I out in a certain garrison town and ordered to reassure the piibli- a- t > povdblc happenings.