Tuesday, 31 January 2017

100 Years Ago - the Great War and Votes for Women


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http://www.thetimes.co.uk/past-six-days/2017-01-28/register/famine-with-plenty-in-russia-kmphx76xk


Famine with plenty in Russia



Russia is experiencing famine in the midst of plenty. The scarcity of food is the one thing talked of throughout the land. Last summer the poorer people took up their positions outside the Petrograd municipal meat shops at 10 o’clock in the evening. The sun had hardly set over the Elagin Island, where fashion and wealth enjoyed their ease and the wonders of the white nights, before the poor, basket in hand, began their weary vigil. Some waited 10 and 12 hours for a morsel of meat. Since then we have seen queues become the rule — for meat, for bread, for milk, for vegetables, for sugar, people wait in long “tails”. Rich and poor participate, the latter in person, the former by proxy through their servants. With the thermometer sometimes at 20 below zero Fahrenheit, people have to wait hours outside each shop to get daily necessities. The writer of this article saw a “tail” of more than 1,200 people outside the cooperative shop for railway employees at Kosloff waiting for white flour. Kosloff had then been without flour for 10 days, though half a dozen of the largest flour-mills in Russia are within a 250-mile radius of the town.


Probably there is sufficient food in the country to feed the population for the next two years. The problem to solve is how to distribute it. The Department of Provisions has borne the burden of supplying the Armies in the field since July, 1915. As time went on the deficiency in provisioning the civil population increased. The Ministry of Trade and Industry considered the question and appointed committees, but there the matter rested. Now its efforts have completely ceased.


Throughout the war the railways have supplied the Army with all that is needed or was available. This shows some organization; but it was done at the expense of starving traffic to the capitals and large provincial towns. With thorough, or even partially, efficient organization the great towns and manufacturing centres could have been supplied with all necessities in sufficient quantities if ordinary care had been taken in the use of goods trucks. Organization and co-ordination are, however, essential if Russia is to cope with her food problem; and it is for this reason that the absence of a strong, capable, and united Ministry has been felt during the past year.

Thursday, 26 January 2017

100 років тому

http://www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/register/venice-in-wartime-75xm2jdjh


Venice in wartime

Venice has been attacked from the air 21 times since the outbreak of the war. In 1915 there were eight bombardments, last year 13. These were made either by daylight or when the moon defined the position of the city on its lagoon and canals. It seems that some attempt has been made to aim at specific points — the arsenal, the station, the cotton mill — except during the violent assault which followed the fall of Gorizia, when bombs were sprinkled freely all over the town; but, in any case, the height at which the aeroplanes fly makes the incidence of the bombs a matter largely of chance. As to actual damage, it is surprising that there has been so little. Many of the bombs fell in the water and were comparatively harmless, but neither the Venetians nor their enemies can tell what precious monument may not be sacrificed in some future raid. The raid of October 20, 1915, demolished the roof of the Scalzi Church, near the railway station, with the ceiling by Tiepolo representing the Translation of the Holy House. Though the fresco was not one of Tiepolo’s finest works, it can never be replaced. On August 9 of last year incendiary bombs were used, and the roof of S Maria Formosa, the Shrine of Palma’s Sta Barbara, was completely burned, except for a fragment over the north transept. The August attacks wrought the greatest havoc, but on September 4 an incendiary bomb fell in the Piazza, only a few yards from the facade of S Marco. This naturally roused great alarm for the safety of the Ducal Palace and the Basilica. The bronze horses from the facade of S Marco are stabled in the Atrium, and covered with sandbags. The facade has disappeared behind a huge screen of timber. Inside, the church, on sunless days, is almost pitch-dark. The windows of the cupolas have been removed and, during a raid, are all left open. To prevent rain from entering, they have been filled with screens of rough, brownish cloth. The effect on the interior is most surprising. When the sun is shining the light coming through is of a soft, diffused yellow. This exactly hits the key of the mosaics, which are illumined by it, till each cupola shimmers and gleams like an inverted saucer of molten gold. It is a revelation of the mosaics of San Marco; they have never been seen like this before.

100 років тому - доля полонених

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BRITISH PRISONERS OF WAR IN GERMANY SETTING OUT FOR WORK







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WITTENBERG CAMP







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PARCELS FROM HOME







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A SPORTS GROUND, BUT NO SPORT.






http://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/british-and-german-prisoners-6mgxsrm23

British and German Prisoners

The British prisoners appear to be singled out from those of other nationalities for harsh and humiliating treatment

Thursday, 19 January 2017

До питання помешкань на території Києва у часи Володимира




Ну ви зрозуміли, до чого я :) А фото - із музея народної архітектури та побуту у Переяславі (зроблені навесні минулого року)






100 років тому - флот






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COALING AT SEA


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OIL-FIRED BOILERS.

Photographed while the ship was running at full speed







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OIL-MOTOR ROOM OF A GERMAN SUBMARINE

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OIL BUNKERING IN PORT

http://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/a-visit-to-the-grand-fleet-lmbmnsrnr


A visit to the Grand Fleet

Count Alexis Tolstoy contributes a further article to “ The Times” giving some of his impressions of the recent visit paid by the Russian authors and journalists to the Grand Fleet

100 Years Ago

http://www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/register/story-of-german-raider-0jx8qrmk0


Story of a German raider

The Admiralty reports that 10 vessels (including eight British boats of large tonnage) have been sunk. The Dramatist sighted a vessel on December 28 going the same way and closing in. At 1.15pm the vessel came alongside, broke out a German naval ensign, and signalled “Stop immediately”. The side of the German vessel under the forecastle bulwarks was dropped, revealing two guns of 2½in calibre, trained on the Dramatist, which stopped and surrendered. Armed crews boarded, and the crew were conveyed to the raider. At 7 o’clock the steamer was sunk. The crew were transferred to the Hudson Maru, with others from sunken vessels — in all 237 — with instructions to follow the raider to Pernambuco. When any vessel was sighted all on deck were driven below and the watertight doors were locked. The heat was stifling. The men heard from the raider’s crew that had a British cruiser been met they would not have been allowed a chance of saving themselves.


The raider looks like an ordinary cargo steamer. When passing neutral vessels she hoists British colours. When she sights a British vessel she hoists the German ensign. The captain stated that he did not intend to sink passenger steamers; he did not wish to kill women and children; he only wanted to sink big cargo boats. One of the crew of the Minieh states that the officer of the raider asked for papers. When he was told that they had been destroyed he laughed, and said: “Well, it can’t be helped you have played the game.”


The Radnorshire’s experiences were similar to those of the Dramatist. The captain was told, when asking what the raider would do with his Indian firemen, that they would be kept at work aboard and sent with the next batch of prisoners. The captain was informed that if he had fired a gun, he would have been sunk with all hands. “When the raider was near I gave the alarm and everybody donned lifebelts. Six German officers and 20 men boarded us and assumed charge. After seizing all the coffee and food they planted two bombs on each side of the vessel, but we were given time to remove our personal necessaries. After we left the bombs were exploded. We were kept in the raider’s port bow practically without air, and compelled to sleep for five days with “roughnecks”.


Thursday, 12 January 2017

100 Years Ago - VCs







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V.C.'S AT THE PRESENT A TION IN HYDE PARK, JUNE 2, 1917.


In khaki, left to right: Private Hughes, Private Cunn:ngham, Capt. White, Col. Bradford,


Lieut. Palmer, and Capt. Alien.




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MRS. MOTTERSHEAD RECEIVES FROM THE KING THE V.C. WON BY HER


HUSBAND, SERGEANT THOMAS MOTTERSHEAD, R.F.C.


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BT. MAJ. WM. LA TOUCHE CONGREVE,


D.S.O., M.C., Rifle Brigade
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SERGT. W. E. BOULTER,
Northamptonshire Regt., receiving the congratulations of his friends


http://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/the-king-and-his-brave-subjects-qzlgb539t

The King and his brave subjects

A widow came next to take the Victoria Cross from the hands of the King, Mrs Lilian Mottershead, whose husband, Sergeant Thomas Mottershead, VC, Royal Flying Corps, died of burns after bringing back his blazing aeroplane and saving the life of his observer

100 Years Ago

january 12, 1917

The reply to the Wilson note





Courteous and friendly in tone, clear and positive in statement, closely reasoned, and animated by the lofty ideals of politics and of morals to which the people of the United States have always paid homage, the Reply of the Allies to Mr Wilson’s Note must command the approbation of the great nation across the Atlantic.

The German Government curtly refused the information for which the President asked. They made no “avowal of their views as to the terms upon which the war might be concluded”, and they told him, in substance, that he had mistaken the road to peace. The Allies do not pretend to be at present in a position to state all their war aims in detail. These cannot be set out in full until the moment for negotiation has been reached. But they declare their general objects with more amplitude and more precision than in any statement yet made. First among them, it need hardly be said, ranks the restoration of the small nations whom Germany has trodden under her heel. Belgium, Serbia, and Montenegro must be set free, with the compensations owed them. The liberation of the occupied portions of France, Russia, and Rumania, with reparation for the damage done them, is equally imperative.


The peace which they desire must be based on the right of “all peoples, small and great”, to full security and to liberty of economic development. It must ensure the liberation of the Italians, Slavs, Rumanes, and Czecho-Slovaks and the risorgimento of Poland; it must free the populations under Turkish tyranny and end for ever the rule of the Ottoman in Europe.


The Allies appreciate the lofty sentiments which make the United States eager to cooperate, as Mr Wilson declares, in considering the formation of a league of nations to ensure peace and justice throughout the world. They heartily associate themselves with the plan, but point out that discussion of it presupposes a satisfactory settlement of the war. Anxious as they are for peace, they sadly acknowledge that they are at present unable to see any prospect of bringing about the only kind of peace they can accept. These things cannot be safeguarded without securing the reparation, the restitution, and the guarantees which they claim.

Wednesday, 11 January 2017

100 Years Ago


http://www.thetimes.co.uk/past-six-days/2017-01-06/register/health-of-the-field-armies-hfnjrndb7
january 6, 1917
Health of the field armies
In his dispatch Sir Douglas Haig made a statement which is among the most sensational ever put forth by a Commander in the field. He said: “The health of the troops has been most satisfactory, and, during the period to which this dispatch refers, there has been an almost complete absence of wastage due to diseases of a preventable nature.”

That boast is unique in the history of the world. Ten years ago it would have been regarded as evidence of mental instability to suggest that preventable disease could be expelled from any army. The old wars were the starting-points of plagues and epidemics. The history of war was also the history of disease, nor were these two ever separated. Whole armies were swept away by the unseen foe; the hand of pestilence was more to be feared than the onrush of the enemy.

Nor do we need to look far back for examples of the double horror of war and disease. In the Spanish-American War thousands of young men were swept away by typhoid fever. In our own South African War the same disease destroyed battalions. We congratulated ourselves in those days that we had coped successfully with the problem of field hygiene, and yet out of every 100 men lost to the forces only 20 fell to the weapons of the enemy. The unseen foe was responsible for 80 per cent of the total casualties. Pestilence walked with the marching men and brought the strength of the strongest to ruin.

Looked at from the vantage ground of this tremendous war, all these other wars seem insignificant. Yet this war, in which pestilence might have been expected to work almost universal destruction, has been, so far as the Western theatre is concerned, a war without pestilence. The man who has done this is the scientist — the man who has been reviled as an experimenter and torturer of animals, a callous seeker after worthless knowledge, who has nearly always had to face great difficulties, has almost invariably been underpaid, and, as these things are measured nowadays, has had only second-rate honours doled out to him. He is the man who has saved battalions to the Army, preserved countless homes from bereavement, husbanded the young strength of the country, and by so doing sharpened all the weapons of war.