Thursday 19 January 2017

100 Years Ago

http://www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/register/story-of-german-raider-0jx8qrmk0


Story of a German raider

The Admiralty reports that 10 vessels (including eight British boats of large tonnage) have been sunk. The Dramatist sighted a vessel on December 28 going the same way and closing in. At 1.15pm the vessel came alongside, broke out a German naval ensign, and signalled “Stop immediately”. The side of the German vessel under the forecastle bulwarks was dropped, revealing two guns of 2½in calibre, trained on the Dramatist, which stopped and surrendered. Armed crews boarded, and the crew were conveyed to the raider. At 7 o’clock the steamer was sunk. The crew were transferred to the Hudson Maru, with others from sunken vessels — in all 237 — with instructions to follow the raider to Pernambuco. When any vessel was sighted all on deck were driven below and the watertight doors were locked. The heat was stifling. The men heard from the raider’s crew that had a British cruiser been met they would not have been allowed a chance of saving themselves.


The raider looks like an ordinary cargo steamer. When passing neutral vessels she hoists British colours. When she sights a British vessel she hoists the German ensign. The captain stated that he did not intend to sink passenger steamers; he did not wish to kill women and children; he only wanted to sink big cargo boats. One of the crew of the Minieh states that the officer of the raider asked for papers. When he was told that they had been destroyed he laughed, and said: “Well, it can’t be helped you have played the game.”


The Radnorshire’s experiences were similar to those of the Dramatist. The captain was told, when asking what the raider would do with his Indian firemen, that they would be kept at work aboard and sent with the next batch of prisoners. The captain was informed that if he had fired a gun, he would have been sunk with all hands. “When the raider was near I gave the alarm and everybody donned lifebelts. Six German officers and 20 men boarded us and assumed charge. After seizing all the coffee and food they planted two bombs on each side of the vessel, but we were given time to remove our personal necessaries. After we left the bombs were exploded. We were kept in the raider’s port bow practically without air, and compelled to sleep for five days with “roughnecks”.


http://www.thetimes.co.uk/past-six-days/2017-01-18/register/the-lost-villages-of-france-2xfhz29r21




The lost villages of France



A little way north of the Forest of Vitrimont, in which, after the Battle of the Grand Couronne the bodies of 5,000 of the invaders of Lorraine were picked up, America is busily and quietly at work repairing one tiny bit of the mass of destruction which the Germans left behind when they were driven back to the frontier in the fifth week of the war. The American lady at the head of the work, who has taken up her abode in the pile of ruins that once were the village of Vitrimont, could probably give as convincing an answer as any to why France will go on fighting till she has won an unbreakable peace. In August, 1914, the Germans had the village in their hands for 48 hours. They bombarded it with field-guns and blew to pieces half of its 60 or 70 farmhouses and cottages. Before they left they completed its ruin by setting fire to every house still standing. After a time many of its old men and women and children — the able-bodied men were all dead or away fighting — began to come back to their wrecked homes, and once again to till their fields. They were helped by the Government, who sent men to repair the houses which had suffered least — those, that is to say, which had only been bombarded.


In the early days of the war, I used to wonder whether the French would ever be able to build these ruined villages up again. The undertaking seemed impossible. Now, in the case of one of them, thanks to two American women, one of whom provides the necessary funds, while the other is giving up her life to the supervision of the work on the spot, the impossible is being accomplished. Before long Vitrimont will be a village again.


It is, I believe, the intention of the State to allow the people in all these ruined villages 40 per cent of the cost of reconstructing their houses, and to lend the balance at an easy rate of interest. But even on those terms the restoration of their homes must be beyond the powers of these unhappy victims of German barbarity, and it is not easy to think of any way in which wealthy and generous-minded people in France and other countries can do more to relieve the distress caused by the war than by following the fine example of the two women who have set to work to restore the fallen walls and the fallen fortunes of Vitrimont.


http://www.thetimes.co.uk/past-six-days/2017-01-17/register/women-and-the-law-9m925vbtc


Women and the law

The annual meeting of the Bar tomorrow provides a recurrent and well-worn occasion for discussing the admission of women to the legal profession. That the discussion has never made much headway in the past is due partly, no doubt, to the natural conservatism of lawyers, but also to a certain “crankiness” and want of weight in the women’s advocates. They are too apt to confuse their case with resolutions about the Parliamentary vote and the suppression of vivisection and a number of other topics outside the province of the meeting. And, like every other women’s cause, it is handicapped by the vagaries of some of the feminist leaders themselves. But it gains in strength nevertheless, and we hope that present conditions may at least increase the dignity with which it is treated.


The present position is that both branches of the Law remain closed to women. It is not a satisfactory state of affairs, and we should rejoice to see these barriers abandoned. It would be infinitely better that women should find their own level in any profession where there is no reason in principle against them. There is no stronger theoretical case against a woman lawyer than against a woman doctor or a woman journalist, and the result of admitting them would probably be much the same. Here and there an exceptional woman might climb high on the ladder at the Bar. A larger number would probably achieve a substantial position as solicitors.


Some thousands of women have qualified in the United States, and they have nowhere “swamped” the profession. We have never been able to see any valid objection to conceding the same freedom of opportunity in England. Moreover, there are special reasons just now why the Law, which is the oldest and most distinguished of trade unions, should set this particular example to the rest. The war is changing many things, and nothing more profoundly than the position of women in the national industries. The replacement of men by women in skilled occupations which have hitherto been barred to them has gone to very great lengths. If, as we hold, our strength as a nation depends on a proper distribution of the energies of all our men and women then it is not too soon to give practical expression to the principle wherever it is found.


http://www.thetimes.co.uk/past-six-days/2017-01-16/register/the-victory-in-sinai-8vpz2phbg


The victory in Sinai

The desert column’s victory at Rafa was one of the finest achievements in Egypt during the war. By a swift 30-mile night march across country the mounted troops got within striking distance while the enemy slept. The boldness of their attack on the elaborate system of defences prepared by the Turks enabled them, at the end of an all-day battle, to overwhelm the Turks and Germans, whose hopes were fortified by the knowledge that large reinforcements were within three miles. The fight more nearly resembled the battles of a generation ago than anything seen in this war. Many phases of the action could be witnessed from one spot. Mounted men were seen galloping into action within comparatively short rifle range, and the artillery had targets which could be seen over the gun sights. The fighting was watched by many Bedouin, some of whom actually tended their herds between our firing line and the enemy trenches, either ignorant of their peril or submitting their fate to Allah.
There was a freshness in the scene for our troops, whose eyes, long used to the desert glare, welcomed the rolling green cultivated country round Rafa. While the garrison were surprised by our appearance, they were not unprepared. Several lines of entrenchments, six redoubts, and many rifle pits had been constructed.


At sunset the 8th Australian and New Zealand Mounted Division, the Imperial Camel Corps, Yeomanry and Territorial horse batteries marched eastwards, the horsemen taking a cross-country route, the guns and other wheeled traffic a brushwood road made by the Turks. For about 10 miles there was heavy going in soft sand, then the ground became harder and progress was so good that a halt of a couple of hours was made during the night.


The New Zealanders made an enveloping movement to attack Rafa from the east. The Australian Light Horse moved from the south-east, the Camel Corps from the south. A dismounted attack began an hour later. The New Zealanders moved very quickly over grassy ridges direct on Rafa, which, lightly held, was immediately taken. The rapid taking of the town was a valuable part of the day’s work. It enabled the New Zealanders to get behind the enemy position and sorely troubled him for the remainder of the day.


http://www.thetimes.co.uk/past-six-days/2017-01-14/register/us-welcome-to-allies-note-fxx5gdhpz


US welcome to Allies’ note

Washington. As far as public opinion here is concerned, our Note to the United States is without doubt the most effective document that the Allies have yet put forth. From California to Maine it is proclaimed as a frank and friendly effort to meet the President’s demand for information regarding the causes of the war. If its aspirations can be fulfilled, says one commentator, it will be known as the European Declaration of Independence.


Even those who want peace at almost any price are not altogether disappointed. It is believed that in two important respects it should turn the thoughts of the German people towards peace. It shows, first, that the Allies are not bent upon destroying the German nation; secondly, that Berlin’s talk about British ambitions is all moonshine. The drawn war theory, upon which the Prussian peace propagandists had been banking so heavily, has been badly shaken. Germany’s evident desire for peace prompts speculation as to whether the Central Powers are really quite so strong as they make out. In these circumstances the voices of Hearst and other German agents are as those of a people crying in the wilderness when they demand that our “insolent” rejection of Mr Wilson’s peace suggestions should be met by steps to make us end the war, such as an embargo on munitions.


We have, in fact, handsomely won the first round of the game which the President’s Note inaugurated. Our aims have never been so well understood or our determination to continue more sympathized with. If Germany wishes to give proof of her sincerity she must now, it is pointed out, come through with terms as explicit as ours. Talk about secret conferences means nothing, or less than nothing, but a manifestation of that malign underground diplomacy which the average American believes to be largely responsible for wars in general and this war in particular. It is well that we should have scored so heavily. It is feared here that there are difficult times ahead for the United States. Possibly the President may have something more to say about peace but few believe that anything that he can do will have any tangible effect for some time to come, unless, of course, Germany is much weaker than is generally supposed.


http://www.thetimes.co.uk/past-six-days/2017-01-13/register/sinking-of-the-lost-britannic-njvm9x688


Sinking of the lost Britannic

Further details of the sinking of the White Star steamship Britannic were brought to New York yesterday by Henry Pope, a 15-year-old cabin boy, who was a sea scout on the hospital ship when she was torpedoed or sunk by a mine on November 21 in the Aegean Sea. Young Pope said that the officers and crew believed that she had been torpedoed, because the explosion, while it shook the 50,000-ton ship fore and aft, made little noise, as if a torpedo had passed through the hull forward and exploded in the centre of the ship. If it had been a mine it would have exploded against the side of the ship.
Pope is an intelligent boy, small for his years. He told his story without flourish. “The Britannic was steaming toward Mudros, where we were to take about 5,000 wounded on board and convey them to Southampton. There were 50 doctors and assistant surgeons on board, 150 nurses, and 650 in the crew. I was one of 17 sea scouts, and my duty was to look after Purser Lancaster in his office. Others ran the lifts and stood by for calls. At 8 o’clock five of us were in the saloon pantry when we felt a shock, and the ship shook as if she had been struck by a big sea. We went on eating our breakfast for a few minutes, then the whistle blew four times, and we knew we had been torpedoed or mined. Everyone knew their boat stations and went to them without stopping to look for their kits. The sea scouts on the lifts worked them as long as they could, but the ship listed so much that they had to give it up and go to the boats.
“Only one man was killed by the explosion, the night watchman, who was asleep in his bunk. Thirty men were killed by the smashing of three lifeboats which got entangled with the propellers, and others died afterwards in the hospital at Athens. Three sick bay attendants were drowned through one of the boats being dropped by the stern, while the bow was held up by the davit. Five scouts were in the boat, but they hung on and were not hurt. Captain C A Bartlett stayed on the bridge giving orders through his speaking trumpet as the ship was going down under his feet, and did not leave until the water lapped over him. Then he struck out and got to a lifeboat which was waiting for him.”
The lad’s home is in London. Victor Niblo, a vaudeville actor, is his stepfather.

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