Category: 100 Years Ago

21 MAY 1925

In a debate in the House of Lords on conditions in Kenya, the Earl of Balfour said the Government believed that the challenges facing East Africa and other parts of the Empire must be considered as a whole. He suggested establishing a civilian body, similar to the Committee of Imperial Defence, to address non-military issues of Imperial development.

In the House of Commons, the financial resolution on the Widows’, Orphans’ and Old Age Pension Bill was agreed, and MPs took the report stage of the Poor-Law Emergency Provisions Continuance (Scotland) Bill.

Mr Austen Chamberlain announced that Lord Allenby has resigned as High Commissioner in Egypt and that Sir George Lloyd, MP, will succeed him.

Lord Plumer has been appointed High Commissioner and Commander-in-Chief for Palestine, replacing Sir Herbert Samuel.

The Chancellor of the Exchequer plans several changes to the scale of duties on silk.

At the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, Earl Haig appealed for the national observance of Armistice Day’s anniversary, and the Assembly debated proposals for a Budget Committee to oversee financial administration.

20 MAY 1925

The King, opening a new power station at Parkside, said that electricity—by reducing the smoke of our large towns and by relieving congested areas—would benefit the health of the population.

Mr Baldwin, speaking to Members of Parliament on industrial welfare, said there was a need for the smaller amenities of life on the part of both employers and employed. He added that on three things they could build everything they desired: the will to peace, the will to co-operate, and the will to work.

The Prime Minister unveiled, in Hyde Park, a memorial to Mr W. H. Hudson, the famous writer and naturalist.

The Rent Restriction Continuation Bill passed Committee unamended in the House of Lords.

The Government’s Pensions Bill passed its second reading in the House of Commons, the Socialist amendment for its rejection being defeated by 401 votes to 125.

A Brussels telegram reports that conversations are to take place at Malines, under the presidency of Cardinal Mercier, between Anglican and Roman Catholic theologians with a view to a reunion of the two Churches.

19 MAY 1925

In moving the second reading of the Widows’, Orphans’, and Old Age Contributory Pensions Bill in the House of Commons, the Minister of Health, dealing with criticism that the distribution of benefit was bad, said that the House could alter that without striking at any vital principle. With regard to the burden of the new contributions on industry, he indicated that the question was having the serious and sympathetic consideration of the Government. Mr Wheatley, who moved the Socialist party’s amendment, attacked the Bill and opposed the contributory basis. On the other hand, Mr Lloyd George welcomed the contributory principle while urging temporary respite for industry in the present critical times. The debate was adjourned.

Sir John L. Baird, Bart., M.P., has been appointed Governor-General and Commander-in-Chief of the Commonwealth of Australia. His appointment creates a vacancy in the parliamentary representation of Ayr Burghs.

Herr Stresemann, in a debate in the Reichstag, said the Dawes Plan would be carried out in the future as it had been hitherto, and he could not imagine any deviation from this policy.

In the Ruhr mining disaster, forty-five bodies have been recovered, and twenty-seven men have received severe injuries.

France is expected shortly to present to Great Britain and America a plan for the settlement of war debts.

It is officially announced that South Africa has resumed the gold currency.

The Indian rupee loan will not be issued.

18 MAY 1925

Recalling the Lee Commission’s recommendation that half the recruits should be British, Lord Birkenhead said that if their responsibilities for the good government of India were to be adequately discharged, British recruits must be obtained in that proportion.

Eight Indians were attacked in a house in Glasgow by a mob of young men, one being fatally stabbed. Nine arrests have been made by the police.

The death is announced of Mrs Baldwin, mother of the Prime Minister.

America has sent reminders to her European debtors to make a settlement for money borrowed during and after the war.

The Conference of Ambassadors will meet in Paris on Wednesday to consider the question of German disarmament.

In the Italian Chamber, during the debate on the Bill for the regulation of secret societies, Signor Mussolini said that no government could tolerate a state of affairs in which those responsible for the administration of justice and for the maintenance of order should serve two masters—their country and Freemasonry.

It is feared that many miners have lost their lives in consequence of an explosion in a pit near Dortmund, Germany.

Loudspeakers in St Peter’s, Rome, enabled sixty thousand of the faithful to hear the Pope’s voice.

In their report to the Trades Union Congress General Council, the British delegation which carried out investigations in Russia claims that the “Red Letter” was a forgery.

After a simple ceremony in Canterbury Cathedral, Viscount Milner was buried in the parish churchyard of Salehurst, near Robertsbridge, on the borderland of Kent and Sussex.

17 MAY 1925

Sir Edward Nicholl said that the recent surge of country house raids had led to him selling his estate at Littleton Park at Shepperton.

It was reported that a shortage of bricks was limiting the ability to build new properties.

Several arrests were made in Belgrade following thwarted plans to kill the King of Yugoslavia.

16 MAY 1925

The Prime Minister, speaking at Oxford, referred to the Unionist party’s policy on the question of housing, insurance, pensions, and cheap electricity.

The Earl of Oxford and Asquith, addressing a National Liberal Federation gathering at Scarborough, criticised the scale of national expenditure. There was only one way of escape, he said, from our financial difficulties, and that was not by imposing taxation, but by cutting down expenditure. Liberals had no objection to the extension and completion of the pensions system; it was their system in every one of its branches. But in view of the burden on industry at present, he should be prepared to accept a temporary abeyance of contribution, the scheme to be financed by the State for the time being.

A Socialist Bill to give power to the Board of Trade, on receipt of representations from the Minister of Health, to investigate prices, conditions of supply, costs, and profits at all stages in respect of materials in common use for the building of houses for the working classes was discussed in the House of Commons. The Minister of Health, opposing the Bill, said there was no need for the drastic treatment it sought to apply. Prices had fallen since the present Government came into office, and were practically steady. If the Government apprehended a monopoly affecting prices to an extravagant extent, they would seek from the House power to control what they would regard as an unsocial act. The Bill was rejected by 232 to 113.

15 MAY 1925

The Importation of Pedigree Animals Bill and the Protection of Birds Bill passed third reading in the House of Lords, and the Report stage of the Agricultural Returns Bill was agreed to. Lord Newton called attention to the depression of the British film industry.

The House of Commons discussed unemployment on a Vote of £8,329,209 for the Ministry of Labour.

The London Electricity Supply (No. 2) Bill passed Report stage and third reading in the House of Commons, and the Protection of Animals Bill was read a second time.

French diplomatic circles deny that there will be any necessity, before a final settlement of the security and disarmament questions can be reached, to hold an Allied Conference at which Germany would be represented, as was suggested in a London report.

The King and Queen spent the day at the British Empire Exhibition at Wembley and made a tour of the pavilions and palaces.

Sir Francis Bell has succeeded the late Mr Massey as Prime Minister of New Zealand. At a memorial service for Mr Massey held in Westminster Abbey, the King, the Prince of Wales, and the Duke of Connaught were represented.

Sir Rider Haggard, the well-known novelist, died in London.

Socialism, housing, and temperance were among the subjects discussed at a conference in London of Women’s Unionist organisations.

Over 1,000 delegates of the National Liberal Federation, meeting at Scarborough, discussed Free Trade, arbitration and disarmament, dereliction, and pensions.

14 MAY 1925

The death of Lord Milner was announced.

In the House of Lords, Earl Buxton asked whether the reports upon slavery which the Secretary for Foreign Affairs undertook to call for in 1923 had yet been received, and whether the League of Nations had asked for information. Viscount Cecil replied that, while the Government were anxious to carry forward to the utmost of their power the suppression of slavery, the situation had undoubtedly been modified by the fact that the League had undertaken to make inquiries into the subject. The Government would act with and through the League of Nations.

The Rating and Valuation Bill, the main objects of which are to simplify the method of making and collecting rates and to promote uniformity in valuation, passed second reading in the House of Commons.

The Earl of Oxford and Asquith, who received the Freedom of the City of London, replying to the toast of his health proposed by the Prime Minister, referred to the innate generosity of the English people and English politicians.

Mr Churchill, who was the guest of the British Bankers’ Association, said the prolongation of the embargo on the export of gold would have been taken in every part of the world as a mark of weakness in our financial system. He also spoke on pensions in their relation to industry, and appealed for a strong public opinion to support the Government in combating the upward pressure of expenditure.

A monument has been unveiled at Chanak Fair to the memory of the New Zealand troops who fell in Gallipoli.

At the Canadian shipping inquiry, Mr Preston was cross-examined regarding statements made in his report alleging unfair discrimination against Canadian ports by the steamship combine in the North Atlantic. There were several lively passages with counsel.

13 MAY 1925

Mr Baldwin, replying to a deputation from the Amalgamated Engineering Union who approached him on the question of trade depression, gave an assurance that the Government would lose no opportunity of forwarding any practicable plan that seemed likely to lead to its alleviation.

Mr Baldwin has promised the aid of Government Departments in giving all possible information to the Joint Committee, composed of representatives of the masters and men in the shipbuilding industry, which is investigating the question of foreign competition and other causes of the present depression.

Amidst pomp approaching almost that of pre-war Imperial days, Field-Marshal von Hindenburg took the oath of the Republican Constitution in the Reichstag. The proceedings were interrupted by the Communist Deputies, who, after shouting “Down with the Monarchist President,” left the hall.

A Paris telegram announces the death of General Mangin, the famous French soldier.

At the close of the “Little Entente” Conference at Bukharest, statements were made to the Press by the chief delegates, in which reference was made to the situation in Central and Eastern Europe.

Lord Milner’s condition gives rise to grave anxiety.

The King has awarded the Albert Medal to Veladi Sammai, an Indian, who showed great gallantry in saving the life of a British official when the latter was attacked by a tiger.

12 MAY 1925

The Gold Standard Bill was read a second time in the House of Lords.

The Budget resolution imposing the silk Customs duties was carried in the House of Commons by 330 to 166, after Socialist amendments—first, for their postponement until December 1929, and second, for omission of the duty on artificial silk—had been rejected. The Finance Bill was introduced and read a first time.

Questioned in the House of Commons with regard to an American newspaper’s publication of a document purporting to have been written by him and giving official outlines of British policy in Europe, Mr Austen Chamberlain deprecated any official statement as to how far the document was correct or not. He added that no statement of British policy contradicting his declaration in the House on 24 March had any authority whatever.

The Government’s decision to institute an inquiry into systems of disinterested management of licensed premises, including State management at Carlisle and elsewhere, was made known in the House of Commons.

The King and Queen yesterday attended a matinee at the Adelphi Theatre, London, in aid of King George’s Pension Fund for Actors and Actresses.

The Prince of Wales took part in a springbok shoot school.

Mr Baldwin, in a message of sympathy to the Governor-General of New Zealand on the death of Mr Massey, recalled the late Premier’s whole-hearted care for the honour, safety, and well-being of the Empire.