100 Years Ago - Goeben/Breslau and Bolshevik Murderers

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/register/petrograd-ex-ministers-killed-in-bed-lwspsqztn

JANUARY 23, 1918

Petrograd ex-ministers killed in bed

Details are now available of the murder of M Shingareff and M Kokoshkin. Soon after midnight yesterday, the two well-known Cadet Members of the Duma, both Ministers under the late Provisional Government, were lying ill in the Marie Hospital in Petrograd. They had been brought there the day before from the Fortress prison on account of failing health. When everybody in the hospital had retired to rest except a few nurses, 15 armed men presented themselves at the main entrance and demanded admission, saying they had come to relieve the guard over the two sick prisoners. The porter, suspicious of their appearance and numbers, tried to close the door, but was forced back by the muzzle of a revolver. Then these “Red Guards” went upstairs and asked an astonished nurse to show them the rooms of the ex-Ministers and whispered to the two “Red Guards” on duty in the corridor. Soon afterwards revolver shots sounded through the building. The assassins got safely away before the doctors could be roused. M Shingareff was found lying on his side with a ghastly bayonet gash in the face, which had removed some of the front teeth. He was also shot through the chest and stomach. He expired half an hour afterwards in great agony. M Kokoshkin was shot through the heart.

The murder has caused intense indignation, which the Bolshevist Commissioners profess to share. They have issued an order to all subordinate commissaries in Petrograd to find and arrest the murderers. It is proposed to give their victims something of a public funeral tomorrow, which is the anniversary of the firing on the crowds going to the Winter Palace under the leadership of the priest Gapon in 1905. The bodies will probably be buried by the side of the many victims on that occasion.
At a meeting of the Soviet the following resolution was passed: “Informed of the fact that MM Shingareff and Kokoshkin have been killed in hospital, the Soviet condemns such a crime. The working class will never approve of outrages upon our prisoners, whatever may have been their political offence against the people and the Revolution, and however just may be the indignation against leaders of the counter-revolution.”

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/past-six-days/2018-01-22/register/the-goeben-and-the-breslau-tlhc6jh2c

january 22, 1918

The Goeben and the Breslau

So far as can be gathered, the naval action near the entrance to the Dardanelles on Sunday ended in an eminently satisfactory way. The light cruiser Breslau was sunk, and the battle cruiser Goeben, after making her way back through the Straits, has been beached at Nagara Point, close to the exit into the Sea of Marmora. The stranded Goeben has already been attacked by naval aircraft, and it may prove possible to destroy her by long-range fire across the Gallipoli Peninsula. Our losses consist of the monitor Raglan and a smaller craft. Captain Viscount Broome, commander of the Raglan, and a nephew of the late Lord Kitchener, is, it is hoped, among the large number of those rescued. The details issued last night by the Admiralty show that on coming out the enemy steamed north-westward and engaged our naval forces to the north of the island of Imbros. They sank the two monitors, and then came south of the island, where the Breslau was sunk by a mine, whereupon the Goeben steamed off at full speed for the Dardanelles, thereby maintaining her unique and unbroken record of flight from every action in which she has been engaged. Near the entrance to the Straits she struck a mine, and presumably was beached to avoid sinking, only to become an excellent target for our aircraft. The two vessels were accompanied by Turkish destroyers, but it seems unlikely that they had in view any larger purpose than a brief raid. On the other hand, it is conceivable that the Turks are not sorry to see these warships disappear. Their guns dominated Constantinople, and were meant to back up a waning influence which is now detested.

No two warships have had such an important effect upon the war as the Goeben and the Breslau. The story of their escape from Messina represents one of the greatest of our blunders. It is also the first of a series of unfortunate episodes about which the public have been told that no one was to blame, while the suppression of the facts has prevented any opportunity of forming an independent judgment. The mistake made outside the Straits of Messina led straight to the splendid failure at Gallipoli and to the siege of Kut. Very rarely in war has a single error had more far-reaching consequences.


https://www.thetimes.co.uk/past-six-days/2018-01-20/register/the-diamond-troupe-from-the-front-t03qhhq8p

January 19, 1918

The diamond troupe from the front

The Diamond Troupe, the concert party of the 29th Division in the field, opens a season at the Court Theatre, Sloane Square, today. There will be two performances daily. Every item in the programme has been performed under shell fire in France; all the scenery, costumes, and dresses, designed and made by the troupe in the field, have been specially brought from France and arrived in London on Saturday night.
The Diamond Troupe, which is under the management and direction of Lieutenant-Colonel Wright, consists of 14 NCOs and men of the 29th Division, selected after an exhaustive voice test of a large number of candidates at Arras last April, where the troupe was formed. Drawn from every unit in the Division, the members have all seen much active service, both in Gallipoli and in France, and several of them wear the gold stripe. The troupe has become as famous at the front as the division itself, and has performed, by special request, at General Headquarters in France.

Some items on the programme are from well-known musical plays; others have been written or composed for the troupe by its own members, and will be performed here for the first time. Lord Derby, the Lord Mayor of London, and Miss Ellen Terry will attend the opening performance this afternoon. Programmes will be sold by leading London actresses, including Miss Doris Keane, Miss Viola Tree, Miss Gladys Cooper, Miss Eva Moore, and Miss Renee Kelly. All the profits will go to the Benevolent Fund of the 29th Division, which assists the relatives of non-commissioned officers and men who have lost their lives or become incapacitated.

Members of the Diamond troupe: Pte N Giordana, RAMC, with landing party, Gallipoli, April 25, 1915. L-Cr R J Stannard, Royal Fusiliers. Pte W Threlfall, RAMC. Pte A Hill, Middlesex Regiment. Pte H Palmer, Middlesex Regiment. Corp F Pollard, Inniskilling Fusiliers, wounded at Loos, January 1916. Pte A Sykes, Border Regiment. Pte J McKinley KOSB. Pte H Holmes SWB. Pte L Nicol, SWB, wounded at St Jean, July 4, 1917. Pte G Hangle, Labour Battalion. Pte McArthur, Border Regiment. Pte Morris, Border Regiment. Pte J Dean, Hampshire Regiment.

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/past-six-days/2018-01-19/register/the-first-world-war-77zp8tm58

January 19, 1918

Germany’s 4th war winter

The time which the Germans most dreaded is now upon them. They are passing through the fourth war winter and, contrary to their hopes, it began with a hard frost. What this means can only be appreciated by those who know what Germany passed through last winter. Since then a year of suffering, anxiety, and privation has elapsed. The home population, so sorely tried before, now finds life almost intolerable.

Wherever one goes in Germany one sees evidences of the toll which the war has taken of the nation. There is not a place, however small, where the signs of mourning are not to be seen. Children have suffered severely, and the most superficial observer cannot but be impressed by the signs of underfeeding and delicacy, in such striking contrast to the robust, sturdy appearance of German children before the war. Tuberculosis is making havoc among the population, children and young people being especially liable. During the summer and autumn contagious dysentery prevailed throughout the country. The cause is undoubtedly bad food.

The Christmas just past has been the gloomiest in the history of Germany. Everyone knows how great a part the Christmas tree plays in German celebrations. There was a dearth of Christmas trees in Berlin at Christmas, 1915, and people lent their trees to each other in order that the time-honoured custom might not be broken. This Christmas there was an abundance of trees and the prices were not high, but they remained unpurchased, and those who had speculated in them found themselves with their stock on their hands. The explanation is simply that the people could get no candles and that they were not willing to place an unilluminated Christmas tree before the children — it would have been too sad a spectacle.

Nothing is causing Germany greater anxiety than the decline in the number of children. On the one hand millions of young men and boys are being killed, wounded, or permanently incapacitated for useful work in the future, while on the other there is a steady decrease in the birth-rate. Naturally the hard winter is having a disastrous effect upon a population of elderly people enfeebled by inadequate food.


https://www.thetimes.co.uk/past-six-days/2018-01-18/register/queues-and-public-discontent-0qn022m8h

january 18, 1918

Queues and public discontent

The persistence of the unequal distribution of food and of its offspring, the queue system, is beginning to tell on the temper of numbers of people. Here and there the discontent engendered by the scramble for margarine and meat is finding an outlet in demonstrations of disorderliness. The exposure which the waiting entails to such atrocious weather as London suffered yesterday, or to the more rigorous wintry conditions which prevail in the North, is not conducive to uncomplaining acceptance of what is regarded as an unnecessary trial. The decision to ration margarine may not obviate these difficulties, but it should at least convince all classes that they fare alike. Yesterday there were reports of peremptory action at Nuneaton to distribute margarine which was about to be dispatched from a shop, of a great procession of munition workers to the Manchester Town Hall to warn that the public patience was becoming exhausted, and of impending trouble among the Derbyshire miners. Today we have to report demonstrations in London and threats of serious action on the part of the workers in Manchester, South Wales, West Hartlepool, and other centres of war activity.

Women were the protesters in London. A queue of about 100 waiting outside a shop in Tottenham were told there was no margarine to be had. They thereupon formed a procession and marched to the headquarters of the local Food Control Committee, swarming into the building and demanding an explanation. The chairman of the district council assured them that steps were being taken to secure supplies, reminded them that the plight of the German women was much worse than theirs, and urged them to restrain their feelings. They went away without further trouble.
At Tooting an angry scene was provoked by the refusal of a shop to sell margarine to customers not registered there for sugar. The women standing in a queue noisily protested, and exhortations were made to raid the place. The action of the police averted any violence, and later in the day, on the intervention of a local councillor, the shopkeeper was induced to give way and serve unregistered customers. The queue was reformed and the women sent away satisfied.