100 Years Ago - Revolution

http://www.thetimes.co.uk/past-six-days/2017-03-18/register/i-cannot-part-with-my-boy-btq9mjmpf

march 18, 1917

‘I cannot part with my boy’

From our correspondent, Petrograd. I have been able to obtain a full and authentic version of the events attending the Tsar’s abdication. It appears that Nicholas II on reaching Bologoye Station was advised not to proceed to Petrograd and wisely did not attempt to enter the capital, preferring to go on to Pskoff and there learn his fate. To the members of his suite he said, “The revolutionary wave will probably sweep away the Monarchy.” He was then already prepared for the worst.
Alexander Gutchkoff and the Conservative Deputy Shulgin were commissioned by M Rodzianko to go to General Ruzsky’s headquarters. They arrived there on Thursday. The ill-fated Monarch received them in a small dimly-lit room. He looked pale and careworn, but was perfectly calm and self-possessed. Addressing Gutchkoff he said, “Tell me the whole truth.”
“We come to tell you that all the troops in Petrograd are on our side. It is useless to send more regiments. They will go over as soon as they reach the station.”
“I know it,” replied the Tsar. “The order has already been given to the echelons to return to the front.”
Then, after a slight pause, the Tsar asked, “What do you want me to do?”
“Your Majesty must abdicate in favour of the Heir-Apparent under the Regency of the Grand Duke Michael Alexandrovitch. Such is the will of the new Government, which we are forming under Prince Lvoff.”
“I cannot part with my boy,” replied the Monarch, with emotion. “I shall hand the Throne to my brother.” Then, speaking in a matter-of-fact tone, he said, “Have you a piece of paper?”
Then and there the manifesto was drafted. Count Frederiks, Minister of the Imperial Household (whose brother was arrested in Petrograd), and the Tsar’s Aide-de-Camp assisted their master in his final ordeal. Soon the document lay on the writing table. Before signing it he wrote out orders appointing Prince Lvoff Prime Minister and the Grand Duke Nicholas Generalissimo. Then, bowing his head for a few moments, he dipped his pen, and without a trace of emotion for the last time appended his signature as Tsar of All the Russias to the writ of abdication. The whole scene occupied only a few minutes.


http://www.thetimes.co.uk/past-six-days/2017-03-20/register/germany-making-war-on-us-p35c5jklq

march 20, 1917

Germany ‘making war’ on us

The sinking of three American ships, which was announced yesterday, is generally proclaimed by the Press to prove the existence of something tantamount to a state of war with Germany. Newspaper after newspaper considers that the last lingering doubts that Germany might not live up to her whole programme of savagery have been removed. “Without a declaration of war, Germany is making war upon the United States,” says the Democratic New York World. “At War,” is the heading of a leading article of its Republican rival, the New York Tribune.
Washington is scarcely less agitated. According to the Associated Press some high officials admit that a virtual state of war exists. Stalwart politicians think that the President ought to summon Congress at once and ask it to declare war. They believe that an emergency summons would remove the uncomfortable impression that the President is once more drifting.
Even so good a Democratic organ as the New York Times has been taking Washington to task for the half-hearted, apologetic way in which it seems to be preparing for contingencies. Can it be, the paper wonders, that the Administration is still afraid of the pacifists, or of hurting Germany’s feelings?
It is recognized that what the United States ultimately decides to do through the President and Congress will depend upon the state of the public mind. It is felt to be deplorable that the tonic administered by the Zimmermann revelations should be allowed to waste itself. Stalwarts are consequently almost relieved that Germany should have declared herself so brutally as she has done by her triple crime. Surely, they proclaim, the President will take some official notice of these crimes, so as to prepare the public and put pressure upon Congress to take the inevitable step of declaring, at least, that Germany has brought about a state of war. Some such preparation, it is felt, is still necessary. The railway strike, it is true, was averted yesterday by the patriotism of the railway heads, but the mere fact that the men should have chosen this moment to put pressure upon their employers and the Government is felt to be a sign that the country is not properly awake to the situation.


http://www.thetimes.co.uk/past-six-days/2017-03-21/register/empire-war-cabinet-meets-c72q52trd

March 21, 1917

Empire War Cabinet meets

The first meeting of the Imperial War Cabinet was held in Downing Street yesterday. Unfortunately political complications have prevented the attendance of representatives from Australia.
The meeting of the Imperial War Cabinet constitutes a new development in the constitutional system of the Empire. When representatives of the Dominions have sat in council in this country before they have had no executive authority, and have only been able to make recommendations to the Imperial Government, upon whom rested the sole responsibility for the Foreign Policy of the Empire, for the government of the dependencies, for the maintenance of the Navy and Army, and for the provision of funds requisite for defence by sea and on land. Dominion Ministers have attended meetings of the Imperial Cabinet recently, but not as members of the Cabinet itself.
The War Cabinet which is now meeting is an Executive Cabinet for the Empire. It is invested with full responsibility for the decision of all matters which are essential for the prosecution of the War, including questions of Foreign Policy, of the provision of troops and munitions, and of war finance. It will settle Imperial policy as to the terms of peace. It will consider those important problems which are certain to be the pressing legacy of the war.
At its first meeting yesterday the Prime Minister addressed the members. The Secretary of State for the Colonies, representing the Crown Colonies, and other members of the Cabinet, replied. The Dominion Representatives are also to attend a Conference, held under the presidency of the Colonial Secretary, at which similar subjects to those that have been considered by former Imperial Conferences will be discussed. Decisions on these subjects will not necessarily be aimed at. Indeed, many of them are obviously not susceptible of decision at this moment. The object of the Conference is rather to take advantage of the presence of Dominion statesmen in this country to clear the ground, and to ensure for the Dominion representatives the advantages of mutual deliberation. It is understood that the first meeting of this Conference is to take place today.


http://www.thetimes.co.uk/past-six-days/2017-03-23/register/the-ex-tsaritsas-arrest-b7qfrtbtd

March 23, 1917

The ex-Tsaritsa’s arrest

Petrograd, March 22. The ex-Tsar is expected at Tsarskoe Selo today. He will be met on arrival by General Korniloff, the Commander of the Petrograd district, with whom he will motor to the Palace, escorted by a cavalry guard.
General Korniloff, proceeding to Tsarskoe Selo to arrest the ex-Tsaritsa, was taken to her private apartments. She asked the General and his staff to be seated. Her first words were: “To what am I indebted for your visit?”
General Korniloff, rising, replied, “I have come by the instructions of the Council of Ministers and have to inform you of the decision of the Provisional Government.”
The ex-Tsaritsa rose and said, “I am listening.”
After reading the decree, General Korniloff informed the ex-Empress that from that moment she was deprived of her liberty. A strict guard would be established at the palace, and the former watch would be removed. The ex-Empress asked the general not to dismiss her servants, who, she said, were used to her children. March 21. The Bourse Gazette states that correspondence between the ex-Tsaritsa and M Protopopoff, the ex-Minister of the Interior, has been discovered which proves the Germanophil tendencies of the late Government, especially of M Protopopoff himself, and confirms the reports of the efforts of adherents of the old regime to conclude a separate peace with Germany.

An edict abolishing the death penalty is about to be issued. The ex-Ministers are to be tried, by jury.
LABOUR AT ONE WITH DUMA
New York, March 22. The Petrograd correspondent of the Associated Press telegraphs an account of an interview with the Radical Minister, M Kerensky, who said:
“If any serious disagreement existed at the beginning between the working men and the Duma Committee, it was only a passing symptom of fever attending the birth of the new nation. I can assure you that every difference has disappeared. My visit to Moscow, from which I returned this morning, satisfies me that the whole Army, from the commander down to the last soldier, is eagerly devoted to the continuance of the war.”


http://www.thetimes.co.uk/past-six-days/2017-03-22/register/freed-villages-in-ruins-23gln0x5d

March 22, 1917

Freed villages in ruins

With the French Army. I have just come in from Chauny, which the Germans left yesterday. Some of the ruin that they have left behind them in this region was obviously justified by the exigencies of war. At the beginning of their stay all the big trees along the sides of the road were felled. On the eve of their departure they mined the road at every point where it is crossed by a stream or another road, to delay the advance of the French. They might conceivably have pleaded military necessity for blowing up isolated farms and houses near the road, on the ground that they would be useful to the French as blockhouses, but only if they had intended to make a stand on this side of Chauny. But for the rest of their conduct there is no possible defence. In village after village they have burnt whole rows of houses for no reason but pure spite. In house after house they have pillaged every room that they had not set on fire and taken all the contents, or else, more vilely still, they have smashed them to atoms.
In the fields between Noyon and Chauny, many of which — a sure sign that the German retreat was not foreseen — have been carefully ploughed and even sown, there are, or were, a considerable number of fruit trees. Every one of them within a certain distance of the road — for the thing was obviously done in a hurry when they found that they were bound to retreat — has been killed. They have either been sawn through a couple of feet from the ground, or else a gash three or four inches deep has been hacked in a circle round the trunk. The gashes are quite fresh.
It is clear that it is the German officers who are responsible. And here are two more facts about the class who have the control, but not, let us hope, the destiny, of the German race in their hands. Both of them were told me today by a distinguished French officer, whose truthfulness and honour are beyond question. When the Germans left Noyon on Sunday they took with them 50 young French girls who, they said, were to act as officers’ servants. When he was on a part of the Somme front now taken over by the British he saw with his own eyes photographs taken from German prisoners of German officers sitting at dinner and being waited upon at table by naked women.


http://www.thetimes.co.uk/past-six-days/2017-03-24/register/facing-the-food-problem-02xs0530k

March 24, 1917

Facing the food problem

For the first time since the Crimean War the price of bread in this country is to be raised to a shilling for a four-pound loaf. We are not sure that the reasons assigned for the increase are quite convincing, but the higher price will at least make the public more careful about the consumption of bread. Even people who fail to heed Lord Devonport’s grave speech in the House of Lords on Thursday will recognize the plain warning implied by the shilling loaf. It is unfortunate that the Food Controller did not make clear to the nation the relative position of our supplies of bread and of meat the moment his Department was formed. He explained on Thursday that there is relatively less anxiety about meat than about bread, and that “the curtailment of bread consumption is far more important than meat consumption”.
We have repeatedly urged these points, and Lord Devonport might have emphasized them earlier. The country was led to concentrate its attention upon meatless days and potatoless days, and up till now has paid insufficient attention to the even more pressing question of bread. Meatless days are necessary enough, but a great deal more might be done to induce economy in bread consumption. If it is necessary to prescribe the number of ounces of meat which may be consumed at a meal in an hotel, as undoubtedly it is, why not limit the bread also? We hear much about gluttony at meat meals in restaurants, but nothing about the bread and cake and pastry eaten in teashops. The teashop requires scrutiny just as much as the restaurant. One great cause of excessive consumption is that many housewives have not yet understood that Lord Devonport’s ration includes both bread and flour. Households which scrupulously limit their purchases of bread continue to buy flour for cakes and pies and pastry outside the limits of the ration. In many cases this is being done through ignorance. In the houses of the well-to-do, where an evening meat meal is taken, there is also a considerable consumption of bread, or its equivalent, at afternoon tea, which might very well be eliminated. Three meals a day, and nothing between, ought now to be the extreme limit for everybody. We shall be lucky if we do not in the end get down to two meals a day.