The Daily Colonist, October 1–31, 1915
Sat, 2015/11/07 - 2:39pm
« previous next »#dailycolonist1915 #WWI - The news out of Victoria, British Columbia, 100 years ago:
Drug runners, whalers, pirates, propaganda, protests, Zeppelin attacks, giant telescopes, darkest Africa, Hallowe'en haunted houses, murder and atrocities are just a few of the things I've picked out from October 1915.
- Friday, October 1, 1915
- October starts out with Canadian troops waiting for everyone else to catch up.
- Saturday, October 2, 1915
- Two different interceptions of smuggled opium. One in Seattle of a shipment that came through Vancouver, and the other in Victoria on ship out of Glasgow via Kingston, Jamaica. It's also noted for no good reason that the Glasgow ship make it to Victoria in record time: only 36 days.
- Sunday, October 3, 1915
- The Prince of Wales [future King Edward VIII] is narrowly missed by an exploding artillery shell. "Reproached with having run into danger, which the heir to the throne must avoid, the Prince replied: 'Well, I have plenty of brothers.'" [and he will, in fact, abdicate and give the crown to his younger brother who will be King George V.]
- Monday, October 4, 1915
- Tuesday, October 5, 1915
- The Victoria Whaling Company officially reports, as expected, a profitable first season despite a late start.
- Wednesday, October 6, 1915
- A deal is made between the Russian central bank and the Bank of England to shore up the Rouble, which has lost half its value since the beginning of the war [I picked this out because it is minor news in 1915, but this inflation is one of the underlying causes of the discontent that sparks the Russian Revolution.]
- Thursday, October 7, 1915
- The complicated situation in the Balkans is coming to a head with the Greek king basically firing his prime minister. Greece has a treaty obligation to support Servia [Serbia] but is friendly with Germany. Romania has previously declared neutrality but it's not clear if that is sincere, and the royal family has ties to Germany. Bulgaria has treaty obligations to Russia and Germany. And, of course this is all happening in the space between Austria-Hungary and the Ottoman Empire, which has implications for over-land support to keep the Anglo-French forces from taking Constantinople [Istanbul].
- Friday, October 8, 1915
- [In the build-up to World War II, and an unfortunately difficult to read bad scan] Japan demands jurisdiction on the Korean peninsula and in Manchuria.
- Saturday, October 9, 1915
- The efforts of the American ambassador to the Ottoman Empire to help Armenians are useless.
- Sunday, October 10, 1915
- One the good-news front, work on the Dominion Government Observatory outside of Victoria is going well [It's being referred to as "one of" the world's largest telescopes now. When work started the mirror was the world's largest.] The road to the observatory site is also turning out to be a popular motor trip for the sake of the view for Little Saanich Mountain.
- Monday, October 11, 1915
- Tuesday, October 12, 1915
- The Panama Canal remains closed due to landslides caused by winter rains. General Goethals, Governor of the canal zone is not sure how long it will take to clear the canal.
- Wednesday, October 13, 1915
- Armed yachts out of the United States, manned by Germans suspected to be officers from seized German ships, are attacking British oil-carrying ships on the way from Mexico to Britain.
- Thursday, October 14, 1915
- The Hudson's Bay Company fort, Fort Edmonton, is going to be disassembled and moved to a new site and adapted to serve as a museum.
- Friday, October 15, 1915
- The United States Postmaster General bans sending postcards and envelopes bearing "unneutral" messages, both anti-German and anti-British.
- Saturday, October 16, 1915
- Cause of death from "a Zeppelin bomb" on the latest casualty list reveals that Zeppelins successfully dropped bombs on the training ground in Otterpool, Kent.
- Sunday, October 17, 1915
- A very descriptive, almost florid, article of a battle in Northern France, including a mult-coloured gas attack.
- Monday, October 18, 1915
- Tuesday, October 19, 1915
- The first transcontinental train of the new Canadian National Railway line arrives in Vancouver with a large party of dignitaries .
- Wednesday, October 20, 1915
- Canadian flying ace "Red" Mulcok of Winnipeg destroys Zeppelin sheds, with airships inside, behind German lines near Ypres.
- Thursday, October 21, 1915
- The 110th anniversary of the Battle of Trafalgar affords the opportunity for a large front-page call-to-arms.
- Friday, October 22, 1915
- The British Home Secretary makes the argument against issuing warnings in London every time Zeppelins are spotted approaching the City.
- Saturday, October 23, 1915
- A ¼-page sized image of the king on the font page with an appeal from the king for more men.
- Sunday, October 24, 1915
- 40,000 women (and 5,000 men) march along Fifth Avenue in New York City for Women's Suffrage.
- Monday, October 25, 1915
- Tuesday, October 26, 1915
- An account of Germans murdering two wounded Canadian prisoners.
- Wednesday, October 27, 1915
- The Y.M.C.A. in Victoria announces Hallowe'en open-house including a Classically-themed performance, haunted house and fortune-telling. "All soldiers and sailors are cordially invited to attend."
- Thursday, October 28, 1915
- [Remember that, in the Euro-centric eye, central Africa in 1915 is still largely unexplored and that, for example, the Tarzan stories are appearing in science-fiction pulps and "deepest darkest Africa" is just as mysterious as outer space.] A very exotic story of Belgian troops fighting Germans near the boundary of the Belgian Congo [that the article refers to it as "the Congo Free State" is actually a mistake, since that changed in 1908--now it is the Democratic Republic of the Congo] and German East Africa [now Tanzania.]
- Friday, October 29, 1915
- A German astrocties' museum is opened in Petrograd [St. Petersburg.]
- Saturday, October 30, 1915
- Canada officially announces plans to recruit another 100,000 men, bringing the total strength of the Canadian army to 250,000 men.
- Sunday, October 31, 1915
- One of the Fathers of Confederation, Sir Charles Tupper, has died. Tupper was Premier of Nova Scotia during Confederation and the 6th Prime Minister of Canada [and still holds the record for the shortest run as Prime Minister at 69 days.]
[ source: http://www.britishcolonist.ca/dateList.php?year=1915 ]
