IS HECTOR MACDONALD ALIVE?

Taranaki Daily News, Volume L, Issue 59, 17 May 1907, Page 2

IS HECTOR MACDONALD ALIVE?

IiKAIAUKAIiUC STORIES FRO.\r I CIUNA.

Tile Johannesburg ''Stindav Times" ol' .Mill-ill 10 contains the foilowin" .v----lii.illcaljlo story : D Ever since " Wednesday, M ar( .i, o;,, llW.'i, when (lend'al Kir Hector .Maci'unalil was alleged to have shot liim-elf in tlie lioti'l liegina, Paris. curious rum-om-s have been alloat, all tendering Id throw doubt 011 his death. TJierc is : t tln> present hour iii Johannesburg ;i KMitloiiwn who has lately arrived fron the Fill- East, anil hi' makes the following statement "I knew (.'enenil fjii i Hector Macilonald very well, hoth 11 , Egypt and South Africa. I. was in, . Nan-King, one of the ancient capitals] . of China. some 200 miles up the j tze-Kiang trom Shanghai, in December 1 last. 1 s:iw a battalion of Chinese soli dicrs being drilled in ICuropeau style. 1 on a space in the centre of the city, and. feeling curious, T walked up to'where three officers were standing. One jf them was Sir Hector Maedonald. He was clean shaven, hut otherwise lie had altered very little, since the occasion of my last meeting with him in Pretoria. I was almost breathless with astonishment. I was about to speakto him when his eyes mot mine. I was then about two yards from him. jfc turned rapidly round to one of the other officers and said SOMETHING QUICKLY IN CHINESE. The oflicer, almost sprihging at me, shouted, 'Leave this ground at once, r we will put you where your friends won't find you in a hurry.' I left NanKing that day for Shanghai, and 1 found that the fact that Sir Hector Itacdonald was in that country was believed by a great many English people.' The "Sunday Times'' give 9 the above statement for what it is worth. Almost a year ago, a Scotsman who came to this country in one of the coolie ships from Hong Kong openly stated ill Johannesburg that General Maedonald was alive, ami well in China. He

also stated that the General had joined the Chinese army, and tlmt the last time he. had seen him was in ChinKiang. Now, ('liin-Kiang is a town on the, Ynng-tzc, half way between Shanghai and Nan-Kiting. On this man's unsupported word the "Sunday Times" did not feel justified in giving publicity to the statein ent, but it certainly is a remarkable coincidence that U should he fully corroborated by a gentleman who only arrived in this "city last week, and who bad never met or heard of our first informant. , The facts surrounding the alleged suicide of .Sir Hector MaedonaUl have always been suspicions. Tt is alleged that on Friday, March 2ft, 1003, he went to reside in the Hotel Regina, an obscure hostel in the Rile de Rivoli, near the Louvre and Tuilleries Garden*, Paris. On the following Wednesday. March 2i>, it is stated by a chambermaid, who was engaged in the hotel, that while reading an English newspaper. he suddenly jumped up and turned deathly pale. The paper contained a paragraph to the effect th.it. General Macdonnld was to bp courtlnavtialled in connection with certain charges made against hiin while he commanded the British troops in Ceylon. lie sent out for the Pari" edition of the "New York Herald," and while awaiting its arrival lie calmly smolcef a cigar. On receiving the paper from the hands of a waiter, ho fold-il it up. put It in Ms pocket, and proceeded to his room upstairs. Two hours afterwards this same chambermaid found him dead 011 his bed, with a revolver bullet through his forehead. NO INQUEST WAS EVER 11ELD ON THE BODY. It wa« stated in all the English newspapers at the time tliat the body was placed in a common deal collin," and hurriedly taken across to England. Upon arrival in London it was entrained to Edinburgh, where it arrived at ha'.fpast six 011 the bleak wet morning of March :!0. Despite the early hour and the rain, some 400 persons turned up at the railway station. Only the iinmcdiate relatives of tile deceased soldier were allowed to enter Dean Cemetery, Edinburgh, where the burial took plaee. It was openly remarked at the time that nobody outside three or four relations of the General ever saw (lie body, but in course of time the suspicions died down.

During Macdonald's campaign in the Orange River Colony, there was attached to his staff a Scotchman who had resided for many years in Tasmania. He came over to the war with one of the Australian contingents, and meeting Maedonald, whom he hud known as a youth in the Old Country, ho accepted a commission in one of the Highland regiments, and afterwards joineil the General's staff. When Maedonald was alleged to have shot himself in Paris, this man was in the oil v. He immediately went to the Hotel ftpgin,i to see the body of his old commander. He was refused admittance to the room, and becoming violent, was forcibly ejected from the hotel, lie proceeded to the British Embassy, where, after some little trouble, he obI tained a permit to view the body. ' Three hours afterwards lie again visited the hotel in company with Iwo gendarmes. The body was then in charge ; of one of Ladv Macdonald's relation?. On being admitted to the bedroom tin' deal box which contained the remain* was found to he closed up. The ofliew demanded to see the body, but was again refused pevmu&ion. Tic accompanied the coffin until it was interred in Bean Cemetery, Edinburgh, and on his return to Tasmania he •■•'•Med th.it, to his own positive knowledge, 'he coffin had never been opened from the time it left the Hotel "Regius.. Paris, until it: was buried in the Edinburgh cemetery. This man believes to ibis day that Sir I Tee tor Maedonald is alive; and the world will hone that, he is right.

Among the small armv of war correspondents assembled in Tokio at the outbreak of the KuSso-.Tapanese war. the statement that General Maedonald was alive and well in China was a matter of common gossip.