The Daily Colonist, November 4, 1914

#dailycolonist1914 - The news out of Victoria, British Columbia, 100 years ago today:

• The Ottoman Empire is in the war. Britain bombards forts in the Dardanelles and takes the Red Sea port of Akaba [Aqaba]. Control of the Dardanelles would allow Russia the use its Black Sea ports. With the Suez Canal under British control, taking Akaba cuts off the shortest overland route for supplies to reach Germany via the Ottoman Empire. Britain also controls Gibraltar and has effectively blockaded the North Sea. [And the results of the Anglo-French war against the Ottoman Empire will set the stage for virtually all of the ongoing conflict in the Middle East.]
• War with the Ottoman Empire brings to question whether other Muslim countries and areas will back Germany. An article assures that Russian Muslims are loyal to the Russian Empire and Indian Muslims are loyal to the Empire [British India at the time includes Pakistan, Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh, and Myanmar. Afghanistan an Sri Lanka are also part of the Empire, but administered separately from British India. Map included after the articles.]
• German refocuses its coastal push on pushing through Ypres.
• The landslide blocking the Panama Canal for the past week or so will be cleared with a day. Engineer and canal governor Colonel Goethals says more landslides are likely until the land settles to a natural slope.

Meanwhile Vancouver is having growing pains:

• The amount of money to be awarded by arbitration to former property owners that had the land expropriated by the False Creek Reclamation Act has is deemed incorrect and excessive.
• Mr. Joseph Cole "a half-breed from Mission" who brokered the sale of the Kitsilano Indian reserve but was stiffed out of his $20,000 commission by the legal firm handling the sale, wins his appeal for the amount.
• A decision whether Spanish Banks is under Provincial or Federal jurisdiction goes to the Provincial Government in appeal court. It is expected the the Dominion Government will take the case to a higher court. The question of jurisdiction was raised by the province giving rights to mine sand to one company, and the federal government giving it to another. The question hinges on whether English Bay is a "harbour" under the definition in the British North America Act or a roadstead anchorage.

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