Bisbee daily review., 1911-03-24
IS SIR HECTOR M'DONALD, "SU|C|DE,' STILL ALIVE?
Most Sensational Story Comes From China About the British Army Officer Long Thought
 to be Dead
FE -

LONDON. March zs-once more the ever recurring rumor tat Gen Hector Macdonald still lives is heard in the military clubs Again it is reported that the gallant soldier, Fighting Mac. whose daring gained him admirers all over the world, carried out a -pretended to kill himself in the Hotel Regina, Paris. that day in March eight years ago, that he might disappear from his world.
 The well substantiated report comes from China that Macdonald has a high command in the mod efn Chinese army which. the far seeing prophecy. is to add greatly to the menace of the Yellow Peril.
 The British cruiser Kent has been | long on the Aslatic station. Some of her officers were invited to the re cent Chinese military manoeuvres, and with them were several British army officers stationed in the East who had come long distances to in ~ spect the baby Emperor's troops. At the head of a division which passed in review rode a foreign gen eral. His face was bronzed by the Eastern sun. but his features were Caucasian beyond the shadow of a doubt
 Gazing at his intently. two British officers cried in the same breath;
 That's Hector Macdonald by all that holy"
 Sure It Was He; Couldn't Prove It
 Surely Macdonald would be the man to whip dull, but unfolding masses of Chinese into trained sol riers. He licked Egyptian troops into such shape that their stand on the day when the Madhists fanatically rushed them in the battle of Omdur- man was one of the most remarkable incidents of one ol, inc most terrific Ionslaughts of modern times.
 Besides once seen, :he face of Mac. Donald is no more easily forgotten than is the face Of Kitchener. whose career he might have riyalled. The British officers who saw him at the review write to their associates in the military clubs that they had no opportunity to further confirm their first impression. Macdonald. if il
 was he, absented himself from the entertainments that their hosts pro vided for the military attaches anl other foreigners at the manoeuyres So the report that Macdonald lives
 win not down: il has come from al
 most every quarter of the globe
 from Australia. Thibet, Siberia. i Macdonald was summoned from his post in Colombo as commando.
 or the British troops In Ceylon tc
 answer the most disgraceful charges
 of immortality before the war office
 here. In effect he was court
 martialed; he was told to lose him
 self; had he been Chinese subjec
 the Prince Regent would have give,
 him a silken cord and his polit, regrets that he was about to be de priyed Of so valuable an officer Bu would Mcdonald have taken th , hint?
 From the War ofice MacDonat , went to Paris, to the Hotel Regini 5 From the very first moment thos
 who knew Macdonald Lest were eel ! tain he had not killed himself The , quoted:
 ? When all the blandishments of If 1, are gone.
 7 The coward sneaks 10 death. th 2 brave live on.
 | He a Coward? Never p He coward, Mcdonald E friends argued, he who achieved hi p first fame in the Afghan campaign C |. 1879, when Lord Roberts praise ' his coolness. judgment and gallan , ry' in his despatehes. He a cowar [ who. in command of sixty-thre
 Gordon Highlanders and part of h Sikh regiment. learned the Afghan e were lying in wait to cut to piece e Roberts and his staff. MacDonal
 found the Afghans. two fhousan !. strong. on a steep hill and route e them so that Lord Roberts said a But for his excellent services O B this oecason it might probably hay
 been impossible to carry out tn
 program of our march
 He a coward. to whom LOT r Roberts presented sword and hi ( personal thanks after the famou a dash % Candahar He the man [
 lake his own life. of whom it va '- written after the sanguinary fgh
 on Majuba Hill against the Boer, r Feb 27. 1881.
 8 Firing as they advanced th - Boers reached al last the edge c F the hilltop where the British ha e neglected to erect any proper Lreas
 works or shelter They poured |
 their bullets with still more deadl { effect on the already demoralize : troops in the saucerlike holIows D