The Chickasha daily express. (Chickasha, Indian Territory [Okla.]) 1899-current, 1922-03-17
BY DAVID /. BLumeNFELp
UNITED Press Staff Correspondent.

mar Ell i.
London, March IL. - Is Lord
Kitchener Kitchener OF Khartum-
really dead?
He sailed away on the Cruiser
Hampshire in June. 1916. leaving
the Grand Fleet in its snug retreat
at Scapa Flow.
In those war days all shlp-move-
ments were shrouded in mystery.
Little by it'll ethe fact that the
Hampshire had gone down at sea
leaked out. The censorship was still
close. Little was told. AS far as
the world eve knew. only half a
dozen battered sailors, half dead,
we're picked up. The great -cruiser,
with half a thousand men, disap'
peared. 3, Nm ~
The secrecy surrounded the tragedy
fed the rumors. Kitchener, the hero
Of the Soudan, OF India, OF South
African campaigns without numbers.
was a hero to the British Empire.
The early years Of the war had been
marked by chickering's over his con-
duct Of the war. There was much
jealousy among the moa in authority
In the empire.
All Of these things combined to
throw a screen about the disappear
ance OF Kitchener and the Hamp-
Kitchener's reputation for
silence and mystery deepened the
feeling.
Even today, nearly six years after
the tragedy, hundreds Of old women
and men too, for that matter-re-
to believe that the great field
marshal is really gone from the
world.
Kitchener dead? Rot! OF course
he's not. Why, everybody knows
that he is really alive and in Bussia
battling secretly with an army of
unobstrusive organizers against the
red %bolshevists," You hear that tale
anywhere you like in London.
To those dear old ladies' who be-
long by rights to the early Victorian
era the field marshal is very much
alive. Such a thing as his death
they cannot and will not understand.
They will tell you that the sinking
Of the Hampshire was a blind" and
that all the crew and staff of that
b~attleship are working now in Rus
STA with the silent Marshal"
Unfortunately it has been proven
that the Hampshire struck O. mine
and that Kitchener went down with
her. That is now accepted by the
great majority Of I'M thinking peo-
pie both here and in France, where
for a long time the rumors Of
kitchener's resurrection were really
believed.
That hasn't put a stop, however, to
The amazing series Of Kitchener
yarns which are still talked Of in
clubs and private homes throughout
London and all the Empire.
On the other hand sp~iritualists, in
'luenced by the writings of such men
Is Sir Oliver Lodge, Sir Arthur
Conan Doyle and others, r still to-
lay holding regular anc at which
he spirit of Kitchener. appears
md tells inner secrets Of the great
var. AT one Of these meetings the
,ther day Kitchener" is said to
described his feelings as the
great cruiser lurched beneath his
'eet and began to settle to her
leathbed beneath the waves. At
mother he is credited with having
old at large the inner s~ecrecies of
he ammunition troubles of 1916. At
mother he is supposed to have given
lway the plans of the general staff
or the allied ENTRY into Berlin"
The sayings Of the great man are
epeated, but they sound so childish
md absurd that the dead soldier
would turi in his ocean grave were
le to hear them.
That Doesn't prevent hundreds of
believing Kitchener's name
$ still one with which to conjure,
nd anything which appears either
n the newspapers or in the gossip
t the clubs is retailed, enlarged
pom, and Of course credited by
cores and scores. The other day L