Vancouver

The news out of Victoria, British Columbia, 100 years ago today:

• Germans are reported to be using some kind of "silent cannon" that makes no noise when fired, that in areas where trenches are very close troops are talking back and forth and agreeing to ad hoc cease-fire agreements [this is another lead up to the famous informal Christmas cease-fire, and will later be "solved" by old men in charge by introducing troop rotation so the cannon-fodder won't have time to get friendly enough to agree not shoot each other], but life in the trenches is generally cold and miserable.
• It seems a story from yesterday about disappointing recruitment drives at football [soccer] matches that I took as unimportant is a more serious problem to some. The British Prime Minister is expected to be asked to introduce legislation banning football matches for the duration of the war.
• A large shipment of tobacco products is being sent to Canadian troops.
• Strange political machinations in the hard-to-comprehend politics of Egypt.
• Commendations for British and French pilots for Zeppelin-shed raids.
• Canada's first expeditionary force expected to be on the front lines before Christmas. The article goes on to detail the physical training the men are getting.
• In an extension of the programme of internment of "enemy aliens" all Canadian soldiers with German-sounding names in the Salisbury Plain camp, many of which are decorated Boer War veterans, are arrested, removed, questions and likely to be interned.
An editorial describing Basra and its strategic significance.
• A senator from Saskatchewan defends the loyalty of Galacians and Hungarians on the prairies
• Questions in London Parliament about annuities being paid to members of the British royal family living in Germany

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

• Italian ministers confer on Italy's position in the war, still no official stance.
• Portugal declares it will stand with France and Britain, if need be.
• Story in German newspaper taken by Swiss to be a warning not to interfere with German troops should they enter Switzerland, and Switzerland vows to to defend itself, if need be.
• A Vancouver man, originally from Wales, died of pneumonia in Canadian camp of Salisbury Plain and was buried in Wales.
• About 80 interned "prisoners of war" relocated from Fort Garry, MB to Brandon, MB.
• Prior reports of Germans helping with food relief for Belgium are refuted by American relief workers.
• Report compares current desperate plight of Belgians to conditions during religious wars of the 16th century.
• Amusing editorial on British slang terms
• [And a reminder that there were still blank spots on the map in 1914] ...

The news out of Victoria, British Columbia, 100 years ago today:

• Nothing really new in the European theatre...
• In more exotic locales, there is news, however: British forces taken the port city of Basra and a British advance has been repulsed by Germans in German East Africa.
• A report of a secret movement for an armistice at Christmas...
• Ten million cigarettes donated...
• Story of a British raid on a German Zeppelin factory is, rather interestingly, reported from both the British and German perspectives.
• One of the cable station operators on Fanning Island recounts the German attack on the trans-Pacific cable station early in the war.

The news out of Victoria, British Columbia, 100 years ago today. As usual for the Sunday edition, lots of interesting stuff...

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

• In retaliation for the internment of Austrians in Britain and the British Empire, Austria initiates programme of arrest and internment of British subjects.
• Speech by Québec separatist leader Henri Bourassa in Ottawa cancelled due to public outcry.
Government of Canada by order-in-council [i.e. decree of the Governor General, not an act of parliament] bans four American publications with pro-German content.

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

The first headline pretty much sums up the news day, "One Calm Day on Battle Line. French Official Communication Says Nothing Important Occurred Yesterday." Nonetheless, there are a few interesting things in the paper including some interesting articles on the cutting edge of science at the time ...and a lot of fluff that is mostly the same sort of tourist promotion that Victoria still flogs mercilessly...

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

Nothing quite on the level of underwater knife-fights with octopi today (I doubt that is ever going to be topped) in addition to horrible news of starvation in Belgium, there is plenty of interesting and almost as exotic news today including stories of:
• The French Foreign Legion,
• Fighting in the "Near East" and exotic Africa,
• The beginning of the events in "Lawrence of Arabia",
• Wild West mayhem with a stage coach robbery and a train robbery,
• An axe murder in Ontario and Ukrainian internment in Québec, and
• News of vital importance to the residents of Victoria...

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

• Founder and proprietor of the Victoria Times, William Templeman, dies suddenly. There is a large picture on the front page and the lead headline is basically a lengthy obituary...
• Spectacular report of a storm-damaged Zeppelin limping back to Germany over Holland.
• British Indian troops fighting Ottoman Turks in the Persian Gulf...
• Parliament in London approves recruiting another 1,000,000 men and expenditure of over $1-billion [1914] dollars. Better pay for soldiers and pensions for wounded, widows and dependants.
• Victoria refuses to continue paying "enemy aliens" put to work breaking rocks in a labour camp, demanding that it is the federal government's responsibility...

News out of Victoria, British Columbia, 100 years ago today. One of the most interesting papers so far, including an amazing story that, if this wasn't an actual newspaper story from a reputable newspaper from 1914, you would think was a steampunk fantasy...

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

• Heavy fighting on the Western Front reported...
• Fierce attack by crack Prussian troops breaks the Allied line at three points, but is eventually repulsed. 700 dead counted in one trench alone.
• German casualties at Yser estimated at 90,000...
• Four allied aeroplanes engage four German aeroplanes over Ypres. This is the largest aerial battle I've seen reported so far.
• Russian troops capture two German aviators, who were forced to land by engine trouble.
• Publication of detailed weather reports has been banned in France as the information is useful to the Germans. It is only allowed to report temperature predictions.
• And on the subject of weather, it has snowed in Calgary. This is inexplicably on the front page of a Victoria newspaper.
• Second Canadian expeditionary force now mobilizing. 15,272 men to be dispatched.
• Trans Indian Ocean cable station at the Cocos Island attacked by the German cruiser Emden...
• The Mexican civil war is back to open warfare.
• Ad illustrations that caught my eye....