As I understand it Rag asked if there was any truth in certain rumours he'd heard when young. Why would we suggest he hadn't heard it somewhere? He isn't suggesting it is true as much as asking if anyone else had heard the same and asking if there is any substance to it. Surely we should take it that someone had said this to him at one time even if there was nothing behind it? Why would he make it up?

I noticed the clip from this book rag on Haig and Kitchener. Haig's home Bemersyde is not far from where I live. This book suggests that a private subscription was raised after the war to purchase this for him. Perhaps someone in the past mixed up this private subsciption with the slightly later Haig Fund for veterans and mistakenly thought the Haig Fund was for his private use? Certainly a possibility!

https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=7jj34GGDFB8C&pg=PT17&lpg=PT17&dq=haig+fund+c