HOW KITCHENER WAS BETRAYED

Taihape Daily Times, Issue 220, 31 July 1917, Page 2

HOW KITCHENER WAS BETRAYED

DUE TO CZARINA’S TREACHERY.

TWELVE SUBMARINES IN WAITING FOR HAMPSHIRE. is now generally believed that the sinking of the cruiser Hampshire, with Lord Kitchener on board, was due to the treachery of the ex-Czarina, who conveyed certain information to her German friends. This traitress was notnotorsoilu JeraldrJ bman,sflz oriously German in her ideas and sympathies, and although pretending a great patriotism for Russia, and visiting the hospitals where there werie wounded soldiers, in the guise of sweet sympathy, she was surrounded at Court by pro-Germans, for whom her influence has gained a very large share in the administration, says “The Bystander.”

It was known that Lord Kitchener contemplated visiting Russia, but none knew the date of his departure, from England, except the King, the Prime Minister, some members of the Cabinet and a few high officials of the Army and Navy administration, all of whom could be relied upon for absolute secrecy. A special courier had gone ahead bearing secret dispatches informing the Russian Minister for War of the details of the projected visit. The Czarina heard of the courier’s arrival and prevailed upon one of the confidential secretaries of the Minister to let her know his mission. As soon as she had learned all she wished to know, the Czarina sent for the noted Russian Rasputin, and was closeted with him for some time. Within three hours the Czarina’s secret wireless plant at the Palace was sending the news to Berlin and the Kaiser and the German War Lords, knew th e very day and hour on which the Hampshire was to leave England with Earl Kitchener and his staff. To intercept the cruiser with a dozen submarines was an easy task. Notwithstanding the efforts of the authorities in England to convey the impression that the Hampshire struck a mine, it is common property that the cruiser was torpedoed by several submarines, which lay in wait directly in the route, and made a joint and simultaneous attack. The few who survived from drowning told the truth of the affair, but we believe the censorship immediately suppressed its publication, as the authorities did not know the secret of Kitchener’s departure had leaked out. and wanted the public to think that the disaster was accident and not design Now, however, the fact that the Hampshire was torpedoed is not denied if it is not admitted.

Petrograd knew of the Czarina’s duplicity because of the woman’s own boastful tongue and ill-concealed Germanism. So- elated was she at the news of Kitchener’s death that she could not refrain from confiding to a number of her favourites the part that she and Rasputin had played in bringing it about. These favouritios “confided” in their friends, with the result that the whole Court, and later the public, knew of their false Czarina’s treasonable complicity in the matter. When the Czar heard how the Germans learned of their chance of destroying Kitchener, the shock almost killed him. He was prostrated for days, but the guilty and unrepentant sharer of his throne exerted her magnetic influence on the weakling ruler, and he recovered, to lie more under her thilmb than ever. There is no doubt that the Czarina has practically been a prisoner since the loss of Kitchener, as there were hundreds ■of ber people who swore to bring about her death whenever [the opportunity offered. At the time of the revolution she was surrounded by a bodyguard of favourites as pro-German -as herself, all of whom were scheming to bring about a separate peace with the Hun, and it was no wonder that the Czar trembled for her safety. It is not at all unlikely that the Czarina the military secretary who divulged the information ,and a certain other former official will be arraigned for high treason, having supplied the enemy with information of military importance.