Category: 100 Years Ago

22 MARCH 1925

There was concern for the health of the Earl of Ypres following a serious operation.

The Cabinet was expected to announce its plan for reform of the House of Lords.

21 MARCH 1925

20 MARCH 1925

The death-roll in the Southern Illinois tornado is put, in the latest accounts, at about 1000, the number of injured at 2500, and the homeless at 10,000.

The First Lord of the Admiralty, in submitting the Navy Estimates to the House of Commons, dealt at length with the Singapore base scheme, and gave figures of cost under main heads. He emphasised the purely defensive character and purpose of the project. To talk of the British naval programme as provocative was, he said, sheer nonsense. Out of 352 warships building or projected our contribution was 20 ships.

The British Sugar Subsidy Bill was brought from the Commons and read a first time in the House of Lords. A first reading was given to the Government of India Civil Service Bill, introduced by Lord Birkenhead. The Therapeutic Substances Bill and the Merchant Shipping Equivalent Provisions Bill were read a third time.

Lord Curzon’s condition has become worse.

The Earl of Ypres (formerly Sir John French) underwent a serious operation in London.

The death is announced of Sir George Donaldson, a well-known musical amateur and art patron.

19 MARCH 1925

Attention having been called in the House of Lords to the demoralisation resulting from juvenile unemployment, Viscount Peel stated that the Government was considering a proposal to empower Local Authorities to compel attendance between the ages of 14 and 16 at juvenile unemployment centres in areas where the central authority was satisfied unemployment of this kind was sufficient to justify the step.

The British Sugar Subsidy Bill passed third reading in the House of Commons by 346 to 56. The Former Enemy Aliens Bill was read a second time and the financial resolution for the Church of Scotland Property and Endowments Bill passed Report stage.

The Glasgow Boundaries Bill was read a second time in the House of Commons by a majority of 118.

A cyclone in Southern Illinois has caused serious loss of life.

Thirty-three men were entombed in a coal mine at Fairmont, West Virginia, United States, as a result of a terrific explosion.

A great fire in the northern section of Tokio has destroyed 3000 buildings. Twenty thousand people are homeless.

Trujillo, the third largest city of Peru, is reported to have been destroyed by floods.

On the question of North Atlantic shipping fares the Canadian Premier stated in the Dominion House of Commons that the Government’s decision finally to take action was reached long before the Preston report was made. The same subsidy as that given to the Petersen lines would be granted to other Companies if they would submit to control of rates by the Government. If the scheme succeeded, he predicted, it would not be long before other parts of the Empire joined in a common effort to reduce rates.

The King and Queen leave London for their Mediterranean trip to-day.

18 MARCH 1925

17 MARCH 1925

Mr Austen Chamberlain discussed the security question with M. Herriot, the French Premier, in Paris.

The chief topic discussed on the Army Estimates in the House of Commons was the obstacle raised to recruiting for the Supplementary Reserve by two large Trade Unions apprehensive of the use to which the Reserve might be put in the event of industrial disputes.

The War Office announces that it has been decided to reintroduce forthwith Section A of the Army Reserve.

The King and Queen are leaving London on Thursday morning for Genoa, where they will embark on the Royal yacht.

It is officially announced that Prince George underwent an operation for enucleation of tonsils. The condition of His Royal Highness is satisfactory.

Mr Cosgrave, in a St Patrick’s Day message to the Irish peoples in America, says the Government of the Irish Free State recently received from the people a further endorsement of their satisfaction with the terms of the Anglo-Irish Treaty.

16 MARCH 1925

The Council of the League of Nations has sent a conciliatory reply to Germany on the subject of her entry into the League.

Mr Ramsay MacDonald, speaking at Fulham, said his view was that the British Government rejected the Geneva Protocol simply because the Labour party had agreed to it.

A convention has been concluded by the Turkish Petroleum Company with the Iraq Government for the exploitation of the petroleum of Iraq, excluding Basra vilayet, for seventy-five years. Four groups will participate equally—the Anglo-Persian Oil Company, the Royal Dutch Shell, seven of the principal American oil companies, and sixty-seven French concerns, the combined capital being nearly a thousand millions sterling. The convention stipulates that the Chairman shall always be British.

A violent storm which swept the Mediterranean and caused considerable damage to shipping forced the British Fleet to seek shelter at Palma, Majorca.

Provoked to riot by the action of the police in forbidding the translation of an English “comrade’s” speech into German, a gathering of German Communists at Halle was fired upon by policemen present. In the ensuing panic a rush was made for the exits, when the steps outside the main entrance collapsed, injuring many.

The Parliament of Northern Ireland has been dissolved, and the writs for a General Election have been issued. In Sir James Craig’s election manifesto the Boundary question is characterised as “the supreme issue.”

A special correspondent states that the results of the recent by-elections in the Irish Free State are, taken as a whole, highly encouraging to the Government.

15 MARCH 1925

A crowded Ealing to Barking train caught fire near Hammersmith, but fire extinguishers on the trains were used to put the fire out.

Two candlesticks were stolen from St. Mary’s Church in Bow which had been presented to the community as war memorials.

An outbreak of Foot and Mouth disease was confirmed on the Isle of Wight.

14 MARCH 1925

In view of Britain’s inability to ratify it further consideration of the Geneva Protocol was deferred by the League Council until September. On his return from Geneva Mr Chamberlain will have a further interview with M. Herriot on Monday.

A bill to make the Summer Time Act of 1922 permanent, and to extend the period of summer time from the end of March to the end of September, was submitted to the House of Commons for second reading. An amendment, by those who feared that the Bill would inflict grave injury upon agriculture, was moved, declining to proceed with a measure which was not limited to the period, May-August. The Speaker, replying to a question, said that the amendment would kill the Bill. Leaving the question to a free vote, the Government gave an undertaking to take the Bill up in the event of the second reading being carried. The amendment was rejected by 289 to 63, and the second reading agreed to.

The Navy Estimates for 1925-26 show an increase of £4,700,000 compared with those of the current year.

Mr Baldwin and the Earl of Oxford received the freedom of the city of Leeds.

Mr Churchill received a number of deputations, who urged a reduction in the duties on liquors. Mr J. S. Calder, Edinburgh, speaking on behalf of the Scottish Licensed Trade Defence Association, said Scotsmen protested against the unfair treatment of spirits compared with beer and wine.

13 MARCH 1925

Mr Austen Chamberlain, in a speech before the Council of the League of Nations at Geneva, gave reasons for the British Government’s inability to subscribe to the Peace Protocol in its present form. In their opinion, the object of the Protocol could be best secured by special defensive arrangements between the nations immediately concerned, arrangements which should be made in harmony with the spirit of the Covenant and under the guidance of the League itself.

In the House of Lords, the Legitimacy Bill passed second reading. The Merchant Shipping (International Labour Conventions) Bill was read a third time, and second reading was given to the Merchant Shipping (Equivalent Provisions) Bill, which gives power to make reciprocal arrangements with foreign countries in regard to wireless telegraphy on ships and other matters.

The House of Commons discussed and passed Votes for Air Force personnel and scientific equipment and research.

The Lord Advocate intimated certain concessions to the Committee considering the Scottish Church Bill. The compulsory redemption of teinds (a Scottish name for tithes) would be limited to £1 and under. In assessing teinds payable for repairing manses and churches before they were handed over, there would be a compulsory deduction of £30, those under that rental escaping. All heritors whose liability is less than one shilling would be exempt from payment and redemption of teind.