The secret of Lord Kitchener's mission was strictly -guarded at the Admiralty, where only five lor six persons who were actually con-Jeerned with the arrangements knew what was in contemplation. The number that knew of the programme in any detail was still smaller. The rumour that a request for secrecy was issued to the press with much detail that it defeated its own ends was dealt by the Home Secretary in the House of Commons on June 25, 1916, when he denied emphatically that any communication whatever in regard to Lord Kitchener's mission was issued to the press before the loss of the Hampshire.
Only on board the destroyer which brought him from the mainland and the flagship where he spent the afternoon of June & was Lord Kitehener's presence at the fleet base known, Excepting the flag officers of the fleet, who met him at Iuncheon in the flagship, the officers and the crows of the fleet at Scapa Flow who saw the /Hampshire leave the anchorage knew nothing of her mission. It is con-{firmed by survivors from the ship that the fact that the vessel was to proceed to Archangel only became known to the crew during the day of her departure, and that Lord Kitchener's arrival on board came a complete surpris Lord Kitchener and his party left London in the afternoon of Sunday, June 4. A telegram was sent to the Commander-in-chief in cipher from the Admiralty toon after 5 pin. {informing him that the party had eft and would arrive at Thurso on the forenoon of June 5. The destroyer Oak was sent to Thurso to meet them, leaving Scapa at 6.50 jam, on June 5. Lord Kitchener had expressed a wish a week earlier to }go on board the Hampshire at Thur-so and to proceed in her to Scapa Flow, but the Commander-in-Chi lon being consulted, did not con: it desirable owing to the risk of submarine attack, and telegraphed on June 4 that it would be safer for the erossing to be made in a destroyer, On reaching Thurso, there. fore, Lord Kitekener and the members' of the mission embarked in the }Oak, while the servants and luggage {were accommodated in the Fleet messenger Alouette. The party Iunched on board the Commander-in-
Chief's flagship Iron Duke at Scapa Flow, and left her about 4 p.m. for the Hampshire.
Secret sailing orders to Archangel iliad been given by the Commander-in-Chief to the captain of the Hampshire on the previous day (June 4).
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.