China

It bugs me when Chinese New Year is called "Lunar New Year" (as the City of Vancouver is wont to do). Areas with large populations of Chinese ex-pats follow lock-step with the timing as it applies to the Chinese time zone, so calling it "Chinese New Year" is wholly appropriate. In the smattering of countries that officially use the exact mechanism of Chinese calendar outside of China occasionally the day for the beginning of the year is different because local time causes the first new moon after the winter solstice to fall on a different day.

#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.

#dailycolonist1915 - The news out of Victoria, British Columbia, 100 years ago:

#dailycolonist1915 - The news out of Victoria, British Columbia, 100 years ago:

• Saturday, February 20, 1915
  • [On the build-up to WWII] Japanese territorial demands alarm the Chinese government.
  • A couple of rental ads for homes in Victoria and farm-land in and around the area.
  • Large, quarter-page ad for the first Victoria showing of the new Dodge Brothers motor car [1915 was the first year Dodge, founded in 1900 and up to this point just a parts manufacturer for other companies, made their own vehicle].

     

News out of Victoria, British Columbia, 100 years ago today.

• Chancellor of Exchequer proposes increased taxes to parliament in London, including doubling the income tax [so much for that old myth that income tax was "invented" to fund World War I], raising taxes on beer. Not quite four months of war have already cost more than the entire four years of the Boer War.
• First Canadians sent into combat.
• The War Office denounces the use of dum-dum bullets by the Germans in violation of The Hague Convention. British bullets described as "most humane projectile yet devised."
• Just three years after overthrowing the imperial government, the Republic of China is broke. European governments have no money to lend, China looking to United States for loan.

News out of Victoria, British Columbia, 100 years ago today:

• Front page map of Kiao-Chau Bay [ Jiaozhou Bay / 胶州湾 ] and area around Tsing-Tau [ Qingdao / 青岛 ]. German fort expected to fall soon.
• North Sea officially closed to commercial traffic due to surreptitiously deployed mines.
• United States secret service warns the Canadian government of a suspected attack on the Welland Canal (the locks that allow ships to bypass Niagra Falls) [with wording that echoes the "terrorist" rhetoric of 2014.]

News from Victoria, British Columbia, 100 years ago today.

• Germans enter Brussels unopposed, with Belgian army retreating to defend Antwerp.
• Japanese demand that Germans vacate Tsing-Tau. Germany has two more days to reply to Japanese ultimatums.
• Editorial on the Japanese ultimatum and German territory in China
• ...