Germany Surrenders 1918

Daily Mail dated November 12^th 1918

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As seen before on this blog broadsheets of this period devoted their front page to adverts, so the only indication that this paper is reporting on a momentous day in 20^th Century history is the small block in the top right hand corner.

I see Christmas used to start in November  – Whiteley’s Grand Xmas Bazaar. Now, of course, it’s closer to August.

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After four and a half years of the bloodiest and most costly war in history it must have been an enormous relief to open this paper and read the words ‘Germany surrenders’.

The Armistice Terms were regarded as harsh by the Germans and in them were the seeds of the discontent that led to the rise of Nationalism and finally World War II.

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November 11^th 1918 was not the actual end of the Great War; merely a cease-fire that could have been broken by either side at any time in the 7 months before the signing of the Treaty of Versailles in June 1919 which marked the true end of the War.

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George V had changed the name of the British royal family from Saxe-Coburg-Gotha to Windsor as late as 1917 to distance himself from his cousin the Kaiser Wilhelm (they were both Grand-sons of Queen Victoria).

These messages were to the survivors – 5 and half million Allied troops didn’t live to read them.

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The men who helped to win the War – familiar names like Lloyd George, Clemanceau, Wilson, Haig, Allenby, Foch, Pershing, Beatty and Petain along side those that are less familiar after all these years – Plumer, Rawlinson, Byng, Monash, Keyes, Geddes, Hughes, Joffre and Tyrwbitt.

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The Kaiser was allowed to stay in Holland, which had been neutral throughout the War, and died there in 1941.

The political chaos in Germany at the end of the War was too complex for me to even think about summarising, suffice to say Kaiser Wilhelm II was forced to abdicate on the 9^th November 1918 and a Republic was declared but the Left wing Parties couldn’t agree among themselves any more than the right-wing anti-Republicans, and a virtual civil-war continued until the adoption of the Weimar Constitution in August 1919.

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This idea for a permanent memorial to the War dead became the Cenotaph in London’s Whitehall, designed by the architect Edwin Lutyens. The original structure was a temporary one made of wood and plaster, which was replaced in time for the Victory Day parades of July 1919 by the Portland stone cenotaph that has been the focus of Remembrance Day every November 11^th ever since. 

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Victory Day as it became known was held on 19^th July 1919 just after the official end of World War 1 with the signing of the Treaty of Versailles on 28^th June 1919. See this post.

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What possible objection could there be to vehicle lights if the streetlights are to be switched on? I would have thought that most people, particularly those who’d been fighting on the front line, had had enough of fireworks for the last few years.

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Time to tot up the scores.  I can see that warships, transport ships, ammunition and supply ships were ‘legitimate’ targets, but I wonder what stories lay behind the figures for steamships and sailing ships?

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The National Birth Rate Commission was formed in 1913 to look into the falling birth rate in the years since the turn of the Century and its effect on the population figures. The massive loss of life during the Great War made their concerns even more acute so a 1918-1920 investigation was set up under the Presidency of the Bishop of Birmingham and a group that included such note worthies as Sir Rider Haggard, General Booth’s widow, Dr. Marie Stopes and the Duchess of Marlborough. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle was one of 46 witnesses that made statements to the commission about various social, moral and economical aspects of having or not having children. 

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One way to celebrate a great victory, steal the Secretary for War’s car. He won’t be needing it anymore!

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Nothing like a couple of aristocrats slogging it out in the divorce courts to take one’s mind off one’s troubles.

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Maskelyne Theatre of Mystery (near Oxford Circus) caught my eye. Is the mystery in how to find the Theatre? Actually it was in Langham Place. John Nevil Maskelyne was a magician, escapologist, inventor, and paranormal investigator. He invented the penny-in-the-slot public toilet lock!

Heat Wave Deaths

Sunday Express dated Sunday June 7th 1925

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Extremes of weather are nothing new but I notice that in 1925 there was no mention of Global Warming. Surely, though, in the good old days all summers were sunny, all Christmases were white and it never rained on Sundays.

19 year-old Nathan Leopold and 18 year-old Richard Loeb were wealthy Law students who decided to commit the perfect murder by kidnapping the 14 year-old son of a local Chicago millionaire, killing him and then requesting a ransom. They were caught despite their elaborate plans because Leopold lost his rather unusual glasses close to where they disposed of the boy’s body and the body had been found far quicker than they expected. They blamed each other for the murder but at their trial they were both sentenced to life plus 99 years. A fellow prison inmate murdered Loeb in 1936. Leopold was released on parole in 1944 and died in 1971.

Alfred Hitchcock’s film ‘Rope’ and ‘Compulsion’ starring Orson Welles were both inspired by the case.

I’m not sure why the paper is calling the Quakers’ limited support for artificial contraception ‘astonishing’. Is it because the Quakers would be expected to be against contraception or is it that anyone could possibly support contraception?

Pro-contraception campaigner Marie Stopes had opened Britain’s first birth control clinic in 1921, which helped to make both the use of, and the dissemination of information about, contraceptives acceptable.

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Continued from the front page -

Anti-foreign (i.e. anti-Eurpoean) feelings had been gathering strength and support in China in the early 1920’s until, in May 1925 a group of Chinese students were arrested in the British policed International Settlement in Shanghai on their way to a funeral. On the day the students were to be put on trial a large demonstration outside the British police station got out of hand and 9 demonstrators were shot dead. Strikes and riots spread across China for the next 6 months.

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Between the two World Wars Britain’s race courses were plagued by gangsters, particularly the Sabini mob from North London, who offered bookmakers and course owners ‘protection’ from trouble makers, who were actually the gangs themselves. The 1938 Graham Greene novel and the subsequent 1947 film ‘Brighton Rock’ featured the gangs’ methods.

The writer of this article, Edward Shortt, became the President of the British Board of Film Censors in 1929 and managed to ban a record number of films for sexual content during his ‘reign’. He’d probably have flogged film directors as well if they’d let him.

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On June 4th 1925 the ambassadors of Great Britain, France, Belgium, Italy, and Japan handed a note, detailing a series of German Versailles Peace Treaty disarmament provision violations, to the German Government The Allies demanded that Germany immediately fulfil all the conditions, otherwise any withdrawal from the Allied occupied Ruhr District would be further delayed. 

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An example of Old Testament Christian justice in a supposed civilized country. A truly horrific story.

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That’s what I keep telling my psychiatrist when we’re not doing ‘I think I’m a pair of curtains’ – ‘Pull yourself together.’ jokes.

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In 1925 there was no UK Driving Test, no traffic lights, no white lines in the middle of roads or at junctions, no minimum driving age, no MOT tests on vehicles and a 20mph National speed limit that everyone ignored.

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The special effects on ‘The Lost World’ were by the pioneer of stop-motion Willis H O’Brien who later mentored Ray Harryhausen who brought to life the dinosaurs that failed to spoil Raquel Welch’s hair and make-up in ‘One Million Years BC’.

‘The Phantom of the Opera’ was a classic of the silent cinema, based on the novel by Gaston Leroux.  This was long before Andrew Lloyd Webber got his grubby mits on it and turned it into a musical.

Gloria Swanson starred in silent films, talkies and TV from 1914 or 1915 until her final appearance in ‘Airport 1975’. She also found time to marry 6 times.

Beverly Bayne appeared in 158 films between 1913 and 1925. She only made 3 films after ‘The Age of Innocence’, 2 in 1925 and ‘The Naked City’ in 1948.

Michael Arlen created the character ‘The Falcon’ that appeared in 13 films in the 1940’s.

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Now there’s a question that needs answering – ‘Does the girl who is always knocking a ball about or riding something or killing something necessarily make a healthy mother?’ 

Mr Page really has a downer on athletic women. For a balanced view read John Betjeman’s poem ‘The Olympic Girl’.

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Move over James Bond, Jason Bourne et al; Harry Marlow’s in town.

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What an odd image for a 1920’s cigarette advert. He looks more like a 1950’s juvenile delinquent who, when asked “What are you rebelling against?’ replies ‘Whadda you got?’

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If you thought the previous image odd then this is plain freaky. What’s the kid doing with a 1970’s Afro? Or is that one of the ‘eruptions’ that Germolene can cure?

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“By Gad, Sir! The blighter’s taken his jacket off! When I was in Rangoon I was still in full dress uniform when it was so hot you could fry an egg on the thigh of a sultry young servant girl. I remember a young.. well.. I err… enough of that! Pass the toddy juice!”

Random Cutting - Poem by Arthur Conan Doyle (WWI)

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Sir Arthur Conan Doyle is best known for his 8 Sherlock Holmes books. He also wrote 3 Professor Challenger novels, 33 other fiction books and 13 non-fiction books. Oh yes, and some poems. One of which, ‘The Guns in Sussex’ is in this newspaper cutting from World War 1.

Random Cutting - Spook Cave-Dwellers in Kent

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This cutting is not dated but circa 1916/1917. In 1918 Arthur Conan Doyle published ‘The New Revelation’ which has an appendix called ‘The Cheriton Dugout’. This can be read at www.pagebypage.com (search Google for Doyle Cheriton).