The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1916-06-09
Earl Kitchener Is
Lost at Sea.
ON HIS Way TO RUSSIA
Cruiser Hampshire Sinks OH
the Orkney Islands.

London, June THE news that Earl
Kitchener, secretary of state for war,
and his staff, who were proceeding to
Russia aboard the cruiser Hampshire,
were lost eff the Orkney Islands. was
the most stunning blow Great Britain
has received since the war began.
This is the second shock the coun-
try has sustained within a week.
The other was when the newspapers
appeared Friday evening with the first
intelligence of the naval battle in the
North sea in the form of list of the
ships lost, with virtually no intima-
ton that there was any compensation
r. in the way of enemy losses.
The bulletin telling of the death of
Kitchener gave the country even a
greater shock.
Kitchener was the one outstanding
personality whom the people talked of
and believed in as a great man, not
withstanding newspaper attacks,
which at former period in the war
threatened to undermine public conf
dence in him.
A telegram from Admiral Sir John
Jellicoe, commander of the feet, Civ
ing the bare facts, was received at the
admiralty.
Was Bound for ArchangeI.
Earl Kitchener was going to Rus.
STA at the request of the Russian gov.
eminent. He intended to land at Arch
angel and visit Petrograd and prob
ably go to the Russian front. His
mission had chiefly to do with the
supply of munitions for Russia
The earl expected to be back in
London at the reopening of parlia-
ment on June 20.
The English undoubtedly are a stole
people and have taken the good and
bad tidings of the war as they came
with an absence of emotion surpris-
ing to outsiders. But no one could
have walked the streets without per-
ceiving that something which the
common people took as calamity had
befallen them.
The foreign Office was saddened by
the loss of one of it's most valued
members, Hugh James O'Beirne;
while Sir Frederick Donaldson and
Brigadier General Eller Shaw of the
ministry of munitions were known to
be men whom the nation could little
afford to lose.
The fact that the cruiser Hampshire,
with between 200 and 800 men, had
sunk was generally accepted simply as
an unfortunate detail in these days
when a thousand go under almost as
an incident of warfare, and the Ca
nadians' battle gets scant column in
the newspapers.
Long War Council Session.
The king came from Windsor and
sent for Premier Asquith when he
heard the news. The war council held
a long session.
Naturally, speculation regarding
Kitchener's successor began imme-
diately. Among those discussed were
David Lloyd-George, Lord Derby, and
the chief of the imperial staff, Sir
William Robertson. But whether
military man or a civilian will take
the war office has not been decided.
Earl Kitchener met death at mo-
ment which will insure his position in
British history.
He was almost the only member of
the government who from the begin
ming confidently asserted that this
would be long war-his lowest esti-
mate was three years-and he insist
ed that the government should make
Its plans accordingly.
The organization of the enormous
new British army is well under way
The general staff under Sir William
Robertson's direction, according to
general belief, has well in hand the
TASK of working out the details which
Kitchener's brain was largely instru-
mental in planning and launching.
The official news was a greater sur
prise than it would otherwise have
been, because no one knew that Earl
Kitchener had left England. A me-
mortal service will be held in ST.
Paul's.