100 Years Ago - Gorizia, Egypt and taxis

http://www.thetimes.co.uk/past-six-days/2017-02-11/register/the-rout-of-the-senussi-dmj20dlgc

february 11, 1917

The rout of the Senussi

The brilliant operation by which the Sheikh of the Senussi and his main forces were routed last week in the Libyan Desert should finally clear the western frontier of Egypt of invaders. It is a welcome sequel to the admirable campaign by which Sir Archibald Murray has driven the Turks out of the Sinai Peninsula and restored to Egypt her eastern frontier. Though few people in this country ever realized it, Egypt was for a long time in far greater danger from the Senussi menace in the west than she ever was from the Turkish threat against the Canal. Germany induced Sidi Ahmed to invade Egypt, and the Kaiser actually sent him an autograph letter, written in Arabic, in which he styled himself “Allah’s Envoy”. The Senussi Sheikh wanted Great Britain to recognize Senussi autonomy within a given area, and we are not quite satisfied that the negotiations were skilfully conducted on our side. Be that as it may, German gold prevailed, and towards the end of 1915 a Senussi army 30,000 strong, controlled by Turkish and German officers, swarmed across the western frontier of Egypt. The earlier episodes of the campaign are common knowledge. No more composite field force has operated under the British flag. British Yeomanry, Australian Light Horse, New Zealanders, South Africans, Sikhs, Gurkhas, Bikanir Camelry, Egyptians, Sudanese, men of the Royal Naval Division, and a battery of the Honourable Artillery Company all joined in the fray. The coastal areas were cleared during the first half of last year. The gallant fight of New Zealanders and Sikhs on the hill south of Mersa Matruh on Christmas Day, 1915; the impetuous courage of the South Africans at Halazin; the memorable charge of the Dorset Yeomanry at Agagia; and the daring 100-mile raid of the Armoured Car Division under the Duke of Westminster to rescue the survivors of the Tara are all episodes which have been told and retold. Driven from the coast, Sidi Ahmed swept southward and established himself in the oasis of Siwa. Last week, he was compelled to give battle and was completely defeated. The remnants of his forces fled north-westward, only to find themselves neatly ambushed in a pass 24 miles away. Sidi Ahmed turned southwards into the waterless desert, and was lost to sight.


http://www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/register/women-as-taxicab-drivers-5dh8m70dn


february 13, 1917

Women as taxicab drivers

The proprietors of taxicabs generally welcome, while the men resent, the announcement in the House of Commons that the Commissioner of Police is prepared to license women drivers of public vehicles. The men mean to make the way hard for the proprietors and the women. District meetings are to be held, and, as one spokesman put it yesterday, they will endeavour to “render the women’s services economically valueless”. The means contemplated is that for every woman taken on 10 men should be withdrawn. It was stated by an official of the London and Provincial Unions of Licensed Vehicle Workers, “women ought not to be allowed to drive a taxi. It is not a moral occupation for a woman to follow.” An official of the Motor Cab Owner-Drivers’ Association observed that licences for women was only a war expedient, and that as it took six months to learn driving, there was no need to worry, and it was a storm in a teacup. At present, he said, there were more drivers than cars, and any woman or girl who took out a taxicab would be preventing a man over military age from earning his living. The manager of a well-known taxicab company, on the other hand, said: “There is a great dearth of men, and we are quite prepared to take on women. Women are good and careful drivers, though some women van-drivers have not been very happy in the dark roads of the suburbs at night. Women taxi drivers are answering so well in the country that we see no reason to doubt that they will in London.”
The information that the Scotland Yard test will not be lowered for them is not giving the women much anxiety. Some men have failed in the “Knowledge of London” test six times running. Among the resolutions laid before the Home Secretary was one from the London and Provincial Union of Licensed Vehicle Workers demanding that the licensing of women conductors on omnibuses or tramway cars should be treated as a war emergency measure and that no licences should be renewed after peace is declared. Sir George Cave, in reply, pointed out that the authorities had undertaken to reinstate the men whose places were now being taken by women, and if he were in office when the war ended he would do his best to see that the men had the fullest possible protection.