WWI

#dailycolonist1914 - This was a Sunday edition.

• British expeditionary forces arrive in Belgium.
• German and Austria threaten to declare war on Italy is they remain neutral (I could not help but head Zap Brannigan's voice when reading this.)
• ...

#dailycolonist1914 - News from Victoria 100 years ago today:

• Mostly flag waving and propaganda today, very little news of substance
• Maharajah of Nepal offers his army to British service, "The majority of his troops are of the Gurkha tribe, the most famous soldiers in India."
• ...

#dailycolonist1914

"Today's" news out of Victoria 100 years ago has some interesting tidbits:

• Belgians down one of Germany's largest Zeppelins using "an especially designed gun for aircraft."
• ...

#dailycolonist1914
News out of Victoria 100 years ago today: 
- Field Marshal Lord Kitchener is appointed Britain's Secretary of War. This is the guy Berlin, Ontario was renamed after.
- Fighting in Belgium. German troops are repulsed by the Belgian army,
- Anti-German riots and vandalism in Antwerp
- The demonization of Germans continues with reporting of a Zeppelin attack in France "in violation of the rules of civilized warfare".

News out of Victoria 100 years ago:
- The paper is full of drum-beating patriotism. Almost every article is about Canadians lining up across the country to serve the Empire. 
- Attached here is a little programme on just who's who in the war: 

News out of Victoria 100 years ago:
- No declaration of war yet as of the morning edition. A second extra edition is put out with the huge headline "BRITAIN AND GERMANY AT WAR"
- The day prior to the declaration, in my home town of Duncan, a meeting to form a militia overflows the Odd Fellows Hall and is moved to the Tzouhalem Hotel. I wonder how many of the men that signed up on that night made it back and how many have their names on the monument beside the train station, across Canada Street from where the Tzou used to be... 

News out of Victoria 100 years ago today:
- A great big pictures of King George V and lots and lots of patriotic fluff to inspire people, but Britain still has not officially entered the war.
- Germany has invaded France, France is officially at war.
- First French "flying machine" shot down.
- Esquimalt harbour is closed to civilian vessels of all types
- Elko is threatened by forest fire

News out of Victoria 100 years ago:
- News of "yesterday's" declaration of war against Russia by Germany has made it out to our little Imperial backwater.
- Germany invades Luxembourg
- For the first time the German emperor is referred to as "Kaiser" (on page two).
- Prime Minister Borden expects the British Empire to declare war before the day is out. The Militia Department is being kept open (Aug. 2, 1914 was a Sunday).

The news out of Victoria 100 years ago today:
- The front page is covered with maps and speculation about the war, but hidden away on the second-to-last page is what would be a giant headline today: the New York Stock Exchange is closed to prevent panic trading due to war fears.

#dailycolonist1914
http://www.britishcolonist.ca/dateList.php?year=1914

News from Victoria on this day in 1914 (exactly 53 years before I was born):
- Austria has taken Belgrade
- Large pictures of Emperor William II and Emperor Nicholas II (it's interesting the German king does not get called "Kaiser Wilhelm" until after the war starts) that really should have the headline "Inbred Cousins to Decide if Millions Die."
- Sir Edward Grey, British Foreign Minister, is overheard in private conversation outside Parliament saying that if war breaks out, it could last for 20 years.