CONQUEROR OF BAGDAD.

Taranaki Daily News, 27 February 1919, Page 5

CONQUEROR OF BAGDAD.

HOW GENERAL MAUDE WAS POISONED. An interesting account of the last hours of that great soldier, General ilaudc, the conqueror of Bagdad, is given by Ealnor Egan, in "The War in the Cradle of the World." t>he wan at the last meal at which he was present, and he came in late. She writes:—

"He looked tired and drawn, but I imagine nobody ever thought seriously of illness. in connection with him. He was so splendidly stalwart. Even then he was in excellent spirits, as he usually was, but he rather startled us with an announcement that he was not going to have any lunch. 'About once a month,' he said, 'I fold it does me good to go without food in the middle of the day.' Then he leaned on the back of his chair and made some characteristically humorous inquiries. . '. He excused himself presently, and went down along the terrace to his room. As soon as he had gone I remarked that he looked very ill, but was assured that he was merely tired. His military secretary did say that ho 'would soon foe done for' if he didn't give himself a short leave. He hud uoi had a day's leave since he tool: command of the Army" Me was ■ecu by the consulting medical ollicor to the expedition, and. told that he must go to bed. A little later it wa? known that he had been sei«;u with cbolera in its most virulent form. The writer came back from an excursion and found her servant crouched iu the doorway of a cabin:

"His face was buried in his arms, anil he was weeping. 'Oh, lady sahib! lady sahib! .England's great man.!" That wa,s all. I. thought it rather wonderful "He was poisoned, probably by the Germans, with a cup of coffee and milk at a native entertainment. The disease developed within the right period of hours after he hod drunk that coffee and that milk. It is not true, as has been said, that the coffee was a cup of particular ceremony, and that he was compelled by respect for custom to drink it. It. was placed before him as a usual and to-be-expected courtesy. He could drink it or lie could not .... I have been asked so often, 'Why—why did he do it?' Why? Because he was a gentleman." it is a curious fact that he *ad refused to be inoculated, saying that "it wo<kl be a waste of serum, because n« man of hia age ever got cholera'"