Tag: 100 Years Ago

18 MAY 1923

Raymond Poincaré, the Prime Minister of France, said that the country’s troops would remain in the Ruhr Valley for as long as the Government wanted and until the Germans met their obligations.

Irish deportees released after the Art O’Brien legal case left Mountjoy Prison to arrive at Holyhead in Wales, with numerous of them claiming they had been badly treated by the Irish Free State authorities.

The Increase of Rent and Mortgage Interest Continuance Act and the Dangerous Drugs and Poisons Amendment Act received Royal Assent.

17 MAY 1923

The Soviets said that a breaking of their trade agreement with the UK would have consequences that were difficult to foresee and it could lead to another war in Europe.

The Lord Chancellor said in the House of Lords that the Government accepted the court’s decision in the Art O’Brien legal case. He said this also meant that everyone deported to Ireland would be returned to the UK.

At a conference of the Railways Clerks Association in Yarmouth, it was suggested that old age pensions should be paid from the age of 65 and amount to 15 shillings a week.

16 MAY 1923

An important date took place in the House of Commons on the Anglo-Russian relationship. David Lloyd George and Herbert Asquith said during the debate that they broadly agreed with the Government’s proposals.

The French Government seized control of numerous dye works in the Ruhr Valley, extending the area that they had seized in lieu of war reparations.

15 MAY 1923

The German Government said that they had a sense of dejection following the rejection by Britain and Italy of their proposed war reparations scheme.

In the House of Lords, the decision on the deportation of Art O’Brien case went against the Government, with the Home Office stating that an announcement would be made shortly.

The Finance Bill was read for a second time in the House of Commons.

14 MAY 1923

The King and Queen visited British war graves in Asiago located at the Vicentine Alps which had been on the Italian Front.

The British finally replied to the German note of war reparations, with Lord Curzon stating that “I cannot conceal from your Excellency that the proposals of your Government have come as a great disappointment”.

13 MAY 1923

The Bolshevik Government in Russia stepped back from its aggressive note of earlier in the week, saying that the country was still keen on a trading relationship.

The Irish Government said that if the British asked for the deported Art O’Brien to be returned, then they would agree to that demand.

6 people were killed in a tram accident in Churwell, on the road between Leeds and Morley.

12 MAY 1923

King George and Queen Mary visited Tivoli and Frascati as part of their Italian tour.

The Rating of Machinery Bill was read for the second time in the House of Commons.

Sir William Joynson-Hicks, the Postmaster General, defended the Government’s foreign policy.

The provisions of the Ulster Temperance Bill were outlined by Sir James Craig in the Northern Ireland Parliament.

11 MAY 1923

Three Bolshevik envoys were shot at the Lausanne conference, with Vatslav Vorovsky being killed.

Eric Geddes, the former First Lord of the Admiralty, criticised the British policy on German war reparations, saying that the French action had damaged trade and the Government should take more courageous action.

The ballot of the Boilermakers’ Society showed a large majority against acceptance of the overtime and nightshift agreement.

10 MAY 1923

Lord Salisbury, the Lord President of the Council, said that the Cabinet had agreed to a considerable increase in funding for the Air Force.

The Court of Appeal, in the O’Brien case, held that the Home Secretary’s order of deportation to Ireland was illegal. The case related to Art O’Brien, an Irish republican, who was rounded up and sent from Liverpool to Ireland.

William Thomas Cosgrave, the President of the Executive Council of the Irish Free State, said that peace negotiations in Ireland had broken down.

King George and Queen Mary visited the Pope.

9 MAY 1923

Stanley Baldwin, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, said in the House of Commons that he felt the French and Belgian Governments had acted with undue haste in rejecting the war reparations offer proposed by the Germans.

Gustav Krupp von Bohlen und Halbach was sentenced to 15 years imprisonment and a fine of 100 million marks by the French occupying government’s court martial.

The Labour motion for the rejection of the Rent Restrictions Bill was defeated by 286 votes to 169.

A strongly worded note was handed by the Soviet Government to Britain about the state of affairs between the two nations.