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WWI

The Daily Colonist, November 6, 1914

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

• Inquest reveals hospital ship Rohilla that floundered off the Yorkshire coast on the night before Hallowe'en (reported on Hallowe'en) struck a mine and was intentionally run onto the rocks as desperate option slightly better than sinking at sea.
• An Italian priest demonstrates his invention of a portable radio receiver capable of receiving radio signals from over a thousand miles away.
• Spies and more spies...
• British aviators crash and burn, literally...
• Negotiations for a reciprocal trade agreement with Australia going well.
• Washington and Oregon pass prohibition...
• Britain and France officially declare war on the Ottoman Empire.
• Germany reported to be building "super Zeppelins" to attack London.


The Daily Colonist, November 5, 1914

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

• News from the war against the Ottoman Empire
• Washington state elections (prohibition passed and other news)
• The Ukrainian Internment starting, railway sabotage and more...


The Daily Colonist, November 4, 1914

The news out of Victoria, British Columbia, 100 years ago today: lots of news about the Ottoman Empire entering the war; changes on the Western Front, news from the Panama Canal, and several stories local to Vancouver...


The Daily Colonist, November 3, 1914

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

• Front page map of Kiao-Chau Bay [ Jiaozhou Bay / 胶州湾 ] and area around Tsing-Tau [ Qingdao / 青岛 ]. German fort expected to fall soon.
• North Sea officially closed to commercial traffic due to surreptitiously deployed mines.
• United States secret service warns the Canadian government of a suspected attack on the Welland Canal (the locks that allow ships to bypass Niagra Falls) [with wording that echoes the "terrorist" rhetoric of 2014.]


The Daily Colonist, November 1, 1914

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

• Map of the current lines of the Western front on the front page.
• [Hidden on the 3rd page, so insignificant at the time that the article cuts off in mid-sentence, the Ukrainian internment has truly begun.] All enemy aliens must register, and "As soon as the approximate number of aliens of enemy countries in Canada is known, the Government will proceed with the establishment of concentration camps."
• much more...


The Daily Colonist, October 31, 1914

News out of Victoria, British Columbia, 100 years ago today, including a suitably macabre story of a shipwreck off the Yorkshire coast near Whitby, war news from four continents, and more.


The Daily Colonist, October 30, 1914

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

• Troops from India featured in photographs on the front page
• British navy fully equipped, no need for additional volunteers for naval service at this point.
• Estimated three million Belgians starving [including my maternal grandparents]
• Turkey, using a ship acquired from Germany, has attacked the Crimean port of Theodosia (a former Ottoman possession, lost to the Russian Empire in 1789), effectively entering the war against Russia on the side of Germany and Austria. At this point the Ottoman Empire is not at war with Britain.
• Three men arrested as spies in Halifax
• [meanwhile on the moon] French troops are fighting Germans in French equatorial Africa [now Chad]
• The Komagata Maru has finally returned to India, arriving in Calcutta, where an "unfortunate incident" occurred. [British authorities in India tried to arrest several of the men on the boat, resulting in a gun fight and the death of 19 passengers.]
• Man who walked stark-naked into the woods near the Oregon-California border in a 30-day scientific experiment in survival will be speaking at the Pantages
• Ads that caught my eye


The Daily Colonist, October 29, 1914

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

• Conspirators in the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife sentenced. Killer gets 20 years. Four conspirators get death sentence. So since this is what started the war, everybody can go home now, right?
• Britain's army now at an estimated strength of 1.5 million men.
• Four Germans arrested in Baja California, including a former San Diego detective, for violating Mexican neutrality by operating a radio out of Mexico.


The Daily Colonist, October 28, 1914

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

• Front page has pre-war pictures of French city of Lille, now all but leveled by the war.
• Telegraph restrictions lightened. Messages may now be sent using any of several approved standard codes.
• German forces routed by British Indian troops. German casualties estimated at ten times British losses (20,000 vs. 2,000).
• Canada sells two ice breakers to Russia to keep White Sea port of Archangel open throughout winter. This is necessary with the Baltic cut off by Germany and the Black Sea cut off by Turkey.
• Canada has barred all foreigners (i.e. not citizens of the British Empire) except citizens of the United States from entering Canada.
• Ad for a sale on opera cloaks


The Daily Colonist, October 27, 1914

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

It's difficult to tell what is important on the European fronts today. The Germans are still failing to advance on along the coast of Belgium and France. The Russians are still pushing the Germans and Austrians out of [what is now] Poland. There are reports that the Germans are suffering from starvation and a lack of cigarettes in the trenches, may of which are flooded (which makes one wonder about the state of the British and French trenches) and the there is much fighting at bayonet-point (which makes one wonder how well supplied with ammunition both sides are).

• Pictures of the city of Ypres on the font page
• Remember how this all started? The assassins and accomplices in the killing of Archduke Ferdinand have been found guilty in court in Sarajevo. Sentencing will be pronounced tomorrow.
• The Italian navy has sent ships to Albania on a relief mission.
• The situation in South Africa seems complicated, with German support of Boer rebels.
• Second force of Canadian troops to be sent overseas will be better trained than the first bunch (now receiving additional training in their camp on Salisbury Plain.)
• Three articles recounting the tale of arctic explorers on the H.M.C.S. Karluk...


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