Category: 100 Years Ago

15 DECEMBER 1925

Mr Kellogg, U.S. Secretary of State, in a speech in New York, referred American policy in relation to Europe. He said that there could be no cancellation of the debts owing by European countries to the United States.

At Geneva the Locarno Agreement was handed over for deposit in the archives of the League of Nations. Sir Austen Chamberlain, addressing the gathering, said they had established peace between themselves, thus helping to stabilise the peace of the world, and give rest and confidence to other nations.

Lord Reading, Viceroy of India, told a gathering of the Indian Associated Chambers of Commerce the reasons which led up to the suspension of the cotton Excise duty. He emphasised that no conditions, express or implied, are attached to the suspension.

The opposition in France to M. Loucheur’s financial proposals is steadily growing. The Bill providing for further taxation has been referred back to the Government by the Finance Committee of the Chamber.

M. Leygues, French Minister of Marine, in an interview, said he intended to speed up the execution of their naval programme.

Herr Koch, the leader of the German Democratic party, has accepted the task of trying to form a Cabinet on the basis of a “Big Coalition.”

The Pope, in a secret Consistory, created four new Cardinals, including Monsignor Patrick O’Donnell, Archbishop of Armagh.

14 DECEMBER 1925

In his report on the working of the Dawes Plan, Mr Parker Gilbert, the Agent-General, states that the two primary objects of the experts have been attained—the German Budget has been balanced and the stability of the German currency has been fully maintained.

There is no change in the Mosul situation, the decision of the League Council being awaited. Tewfik Rushdi Bey, the chief Turkish delegate at Geneva, has gone to Paris to consult Fehdi Bey, the Turkish Ambassador to France.

A Madrid telegram announces the death of Senor Antonio Maura, the Spanish Conservative leader.

Signor Mussolini has proposed, and the Italian Chamber have approved of, compulsory arbitration in disputes between employers and employees in industry, as well as in agriculture. The Budget results for the year 1924-25 show a record surplus of 417,000,000 lire.

In the debate on the French Naval Estimates, it was made clear that France will not sacrifice the submarine. The Minister of Marine declared it necessary for France to remain in the first rank in the Mediterranean.

Mr Bruce, the Australian Premier, in a statement on the release of the strike leaders, said it might be necessary to hold a referendum for the amendment of the Constitution.

13 DECEMBER 1925

Reza Shah Pahlavi was confirmed as the new King of Persia.

The executive of the National Union of Railwaymen has decided that, unless a settlement is reached in a dispute on the Great Central section of the L.N.E.R. railway shopmen on those sections will cease work next Saturday. Several thousand shopmen are involved. An award of the Industrial Court, in operation on all lines except the two sections mentioned, is the cause of the dispute. Warrington, Liverpool and Manchester are among the centres concerned.

12 DECEMBER 1925

A resolution condemning the Government’s decision to close the Rosyth and Pembroke dockyards was defeated in the House of Commons.

The report stage of the supplementary estimates of £9,000,000 for the coal wages subsidy, and of £1,000,000 to cover the Government guarantee in connection with Wembley, was agreed to.

A Geneva message says that the attempt at mediation made by the Council of the League of Nations in the Mosul dispute has completely failed. The Council’s decision is expected on Tuesday at the latest.

The Australian High Court has ordered the immediate release from prison of Messrs Walsh and Johansen, the strike leaders, and granted costs against the Crown.

The death-roll in connection with the mining disaster near Birmingham, Alabama, is 61.

Nine persons were killed and 21 injured in a railway disaster in Southern India.

The franc reached the record low level of 131.80.

Mr Churchill, speaking at Battersea, described British Socialists as “our Socialist softies and fatheads,” and Moscow Communists as a band of cosmopolitan conspirators gathered from the underworld of Europe and America.

Commenting on the Liberal land scheme at Wick, the Duke of Atholl said that under the plan the land would be “simply more than ever the toy for political wire-pulling,” which he described as the curse of land-owning and farming in this country.

Evidence on behalf of shipping was given at the Coal Commission. Five shillings a ton difference in the cost of coal represented at least 4 per cent. in the capital cost of a ship. Export trade was hampered by delay at Welsh and other ports, where eight to ten days were required to load a cargo that could be done abroad in about three days.

Queen Mary, in a message to the National Chamber of Trade, expresses the hope that every Local Authority and every housewife will co-operate to make the British shopping week a success.

The inquiry by the Ministry of Transport into the Fenny Stratford charabanc disaster was begun. After the engine-driver, fireman, and guard of the train had given evidence, the Inspector stated he had received a message from the Coroner, and deemed it in the public interest that the inquiry should be held in private.

11 DECEMBER 1925

The Duke of Montrose is dead.

A Supplementary Estimate of £1,000,000 for the subsidy in aid of wages in the coal trade was passed by the House of Commons in Committee of Supply. The financial position of the British Empire Exhibition also came under discussion.

By 72 votes to 20 the Dail gave a second reading to the Treaty Agreement Bill.

The ballot vote of the West Lothian shale workers shows a large majority in favour of resumption of work.

At the sitting of the Coal Commission in London, the men’s leaders, in presenting their case, complained of mismanagement of collieries, and referred to the “universal recognition of the failure of the system of private ownership and working.”

General Laidoner reported to the Council of the League of Nations on the Turkish atrocities in the Mosul region. The Turkish delegates did not attend the meeting.

The Prince of Wales, who was the guest of the Argentine Club in London, spoke of the generous hospitality and boundless kindness accorded him during his recent visit.

The Newcastle steamer Landport collided with a Norwegian steamer and sank. Ten of her crew of twelve are missing. Details of the wreck of the Cardiff steamer Competitor off the south-east coast of Africa, show that only six of the crew of 46 were saved. It is feared that the Hull-owned steamer Derville, previously reported as overdue, has been lost with her crew of fifteen.

10 DECEMBER 1925

By the decision of the National Wages Board, no change will be made in the wages and conditions of the men—the companies not having made out their case for a reduction, and the Board not being able to entertain the claims of the men’s Unions for increases in wages and improvement in conditions.

The House of Lords passed through all its stages the Bill to confirm the recent Irish agreement, and the Glasgow Boundaries Bill was also disposed of. A new clause was inserted in the Criminal Justice Bill eliminating forfeiture of theatre licence as the sole penalty for the unauthorised performance of plays, and leaving it to the discretion of the Magistrates to impose a pecuniary penalty as an alternative to a temporary or permanent suspension of the licence.

Mr Snowden’s amendment for the rejection of the Safeguarding of Industries (Customs Duties) Bill was defeated in the House of Commons by 308 to 142, and the Bill was read a second time. Defending the duties, Mr Churchill said they covered one-three-hundredth part of our imports. The Government would require three hundred years to carry a general tariff at the rate they were proceeding. He affirmed his opposition to a general tariff, and said that the Government, while carrying out its safeguarding pledges, had no intention of reviving issues that would divide friends and unite opponents.

Questions relating to the duration of the Treaty with Iraq were asked in the House of Commons. There was very little truth, said the Prime Minister, in the suggestion that Britain was to be bound down to the protection of Iraq for another twenty-five years after the expiry of the present Treaty.

Lord Oxford, speaking at the Liberal Fair in London, said that “Fight every seat” would be one of their battle-cries in the next campaign.

Sir James Craig, Premier of Northern Ireland, explained in the House of Commons, at Belfast, the position of Ulster under the Boundary Agreement.

Mr Ramsay MacDonald, speaking to his constituents at Port Talbot, said this country had lost its peasant population—it had wasted it. The Labour party could, however, bring them back by a well-devised scheme of land settlement. They would settle people on the land in groups of at least 200 families. Land settlement and afforestation must be co-ordinated.

9 DECEMBER 1925

The Bill confirming the Irish agreement was approved by the House of Commons.

The Government of India (Civil Services) Bill, which had passed the House of Lords, was read a second time in the Commons. A money resolution under the Land Settlement Facilities Act, 1919, was agreed to, fulfilling, it was explained, a promise made to Local Authorities that the State would hand over to them small holdings which were bought for the settlement of ex-Service men, on a self-supporting basis.

The Rating and Valuation Bill passed second reading in the House of Lords.

An “agreed” document on the question of rural land policy was issued by the Liberal and Radical Candidates’ Association. Mr Lloyd George expressed satisfaction with the scheme.

Lord Oxford, speaking at Liverpool, said if he had to try to condense into three words the policy of the present Government in regard to the coal industry, he did not think it could have been expressed in more concentrated and accurate form than “wait and see.”

Mr Ramsay MacDonald, touring his constituency, told his hearers that peace in Ireland would be cheap at the price of a million or two.

The costliness of the present system of transport was brought out at the sitting of the Coal Commission by a witness. The private ownership of waggons was a survival of the early days of the railway, and one for which no parallel could be found in any other country.

Details are now available of the disaster at Fenny Stratford level crossing, in which a charabanc that had crashed through the crossing gates was struck by a train. A survivor gives a graphic story of her terrifying experience, while the signalman on duty near the scene tells what he saw. Seven people are dead, and five are in a critical condition.

A Geneva telegram states that the Council of the League unanimously adopted the Hague Court’s advisory opinion regarding the procedure to be followed in deciding the Mosul question.

According to a Teheran correspondent, a secret agreement is being negotiated between Turkey and Russia.

8 DECEMBER 1925

The safeguarding of industry resolutions embodying the 33⅓ per cent customs duties on imported cutlery and gloves passed report stage in the House of Commons.

Lord Oxford, addressing the Liberal and Radical Candidates’ Association, counselled them as to reaching an agreed land policy which they could place before the country. Twelve years ago the party had hoped to bring to a climax a series of reforms by a drastic reform of the land system. War had intervened. It now lay with them to reach unity on an agreed policy, but one which would avoid risky, dubious, uncertain expedients.

The text of the new Irish Bill to give effect to the agreement reached on the Irish boundary question has been issued. It consists of only two clauses.

Addressing the members of the London Irish Club, Lord Derby expressed the hope that the unhappy time of Ireland was past.

In the Dail President Cosgrave, in moving the second reading of the Bill giving effect to the recent Irish Boundary settlement, expressed the view that it would mean the turning point in Irish history.

The Government are asking a further £9,000,000 for the coal mining industry subvention, making £19,000,000 in all. A memorandum explains how the scheme is working.

Major J. W. Hills (Unionist) was elected by a majority of 5011 for the Ripon Division in the vacancy caused by the appointment of Mr E. F. L. Wood as Viceroy of India. There had been no contest in the division since 1910, and women electors voted for the first time.

7 DECEMBER 1925

Sir Austen Chamberlain and Mr Amery have arrived in Geneva for the meeting of the League Council. The most urgent matters on the agenda are the Graeco Bulgarian frontier dispute and the Mosul question.

The German Cabinet has resigned, a step which Dr Luther, the Chancellor, had stated would be taken after the signature of the Locarno Treaties. President von Hindenburg has accepted the Government’s resignation, and has requested the Chancellor to conduct the country’s affairs until a new Cabinet has been formed.

In his annual report to President Coolidge, Mr Dwight F. Davis, the United States Secretary of War, declares that the present strength of the Army is inadequate and an increase in personnel necessary. Stress is laid on the strategic importance of the Panama Canal, and a ten years’ programme for the increase of its defenders is foreshadowed, as is also a programme for the defence of Oahu.

Mr Lloyd George addressed a meeting at Coventry upon his land proposals, and said they were not submitted as tables of the law immutable. He was sanguine that at the Liberal Conference today and tomorrow complete agreement would be reached which would permit of the submission of proposals representing the whole body of Liberal opinion in the country. The task of liberation which he was asking the Liberal Party to undertake would do its health good; there was nothing like hard work for curing megrims and tantrums.

Mr de Valera denounces the Irish agreement, accuses Britain of cheating, and adds that now that Irishmen have been found prepared to put their hand to an instrument dismembering the country, his only hope is that the people will not consent to it. Sir James Craig, the North of Ireland Premier, had a great reception at Belfast, and said he hoped that the new agreement might have a lasting effect for the good of all Ireland, Great Britain and the Empire.

Mr A. J. Cook, secretary of the Miners’ Federation, speaking in the Durham coalfields, said we would be face to face during the next twelve months with the greatest economic crisis this country had ever known, a crisis that was going to have great political consequences.

The Executive Council of the Shale Miners’ and Oilworkers’ Association, at a meeting at Bathgate, agreed to recommend acceptance of the new terms of settlement in the shale mines crisis.

6 DECEMBER 1925

It was reported that residents of Tarbrax, a remote village in Lanarkshire, were facing starvation. 400 people marched to Carnwath in the hope of receiving some poor relief.

There was hope of a strike settlement between the employers and the Executive Council of the National Union of Shale Miners and Oilworkers.

The entire German Cabinet resigned, with Dr Luther charged with seeking to form a new one.