MAY 9-23 



DIARY OF EVENTS 1912 



9. Home Rule Bill (Ireland) passes second reading in 

 British House of Commons by 372 votes to 271. Count 

 von Wolff-Metternich resigns his post as German Ambassa- 

 dor to London, and is succeeded by Baron Marschall von 

 Bieberstein. Fusion of National Conservative Union and 

 Liberal Unionist Council under title of "National Unionist 

 Association of Conservative and Liberal Unionist Organi- 

 sations" announced in London. Trial of Tom Mann at 

 Manchester for inciting soldiers to mutiny ends in sentence 

 of six months' imprisonment in second division. King 

 George takes a trip in a'submarine. Committee to enquire 

 into sale of patent medicines meets in London. Socialist 

 disturbance in Prussian diet ends in expulsion of Herr 

 Borchardt. River and Harbor appropriation bill passed 

 by the U. S. Senate with amendments ($34,000,000). 



10. British Board of Trade regulations for unemploy- 

 ment insurance issued. South Wales Miners' Council call 

 a general conference to consider decisions of the District 

 Wages Board. Miss Malecka, a British subject, con- 

 demned at Warsaw to four years' penal servitude for 

 belonging to the Polish Socialist Party, a revolutionary 

 organisation. Bollart, a coppersmith, sentenced at 

 Leipzig to 4 years' penal servitude for betrayal of naval 

 secrets. Mr. Bpnar Law speaks at Primrose League annual 

 demonstration in Albert Hall, London, on Unionist pros- 

 pects. Amalgamation announced of two London Liberal 

 papers, the Daily News and Morning Leader. Legislative, 

 Executive and Judicial appropriation bill, abolishing Com- 

 merce Court and making other changes, passed by U. S. 

 House of Representatives. 



11. South Wales miners decide to boycott District 

 Wages Board. Battle between Mexican Federal troops 

 and rebels at Torreon. Pres. Taft signs general pension 

 bill (passed by U. S. Congress) increasing the roll nearly 

 $26,00,000 annually. 



. 13. Mr. F. E. Smith speaks against second reading of 

 Welsh Church Disestablishment Bill in British House of 

 Commons. E. V. B. Fisher, English airman, and Mr. 

 V. L. Mason, American passenger, killed at Brooklands, 

 Surrey. Italian warships seize islands of Piskopi, Nisero, 

 Kalismo, Lero and Patmos. Pres. Taft appeals to the 

 women of California to vote for him in the presidential 

 primaries. U. S. Senate's amendments to measure 

 providing for direct election of U. S. senators accepted by 

 House. Anti-Russian riot at Lemberg. Budget Com- 

 mittee of German Reichstag adopt Navy Law Amendment 

 Bill. German Emperor in private conversation with 

 Burgomaster of Strassburg threatens to suppress consti- 

 tution of Alsace-Lorraine and incorporate those provinces 

 with Prussia. Fighting at Djakova in Albania. -Strike of 

 workers in gold mines at Waihi, New Zealand, begins, 

 owing to a dispute between two rival labour organisations. 



14. King George goes to Aldershot to spend a few days 

 with his Army. Mr. Balfour speaks in British House of 

 Commons against Welsh Church Bill. Gamier and Vallet, 

 French motor-car highwaymen, are shot after being 

 besieged by the police with dynamite. Clayton bill, pro- 

 hibiting issuing of injunctions without notice, passed by 

 U. S. House of Representatives, 244 to 31. 



15. Death of King Frederick VIII of Denmark in Ham- 

 burg. Mr. Asquith speaks in British House of Commons 

 on Welsh Church Bill. Mr. Winston Churchill announces 

 Supplementary Naval Estimate, and, speaking at a public 

 dinner, states that there will be an increase in naval per- 

 sonnel. Trial of Mr. and Mrs. Pethick Lawrence and Mrs. 

 Pankhurst on charges of conspiracy begins at Central 

 Criminal Court, London. California presidential pri- 

 maries result in a large majority for Mr. Roosevelt. Loan 

 negotiations between the "Six Nations" banks and China 

 concluded. Austrian Premier, Count Sturgkh, threatened 

 with blindness and temporarily superseded by Minister of 

 the Interior, Baron von Heinold. Foreign policy debate 

 in British House of Lords. Fighting at Lhasa between 

 Chinese and Tibetans. Death of General Jara, Dictator 

 of Paraguay from January to July 1911. 



16. Welsh Church Bill passes second reading in British 

 House of Commons by 348 votes to 267. Mr. Horatio 

 Bottomley (Liberal M.P. for Hackney), resigns his seat in 

 Parliament. United States submarine "Geo" wrecked off 

 Long Port, N. J. New Zealand Arbitration Court fines 

 Builders & Contractors' Union at Auckland 60 for or- 

 dering a strike. Provincial general election in Quebec 

 results in large Liberal majority. Resignation of Mr. 

 John Murray, Premier of Victoria; he is succeeded by Mr. 

 W. A. Watt. Agricultural appropriation bill, with 

 $2,000,000 added to House estimates, passed by U. S. 

 Senate. 



17. Bills introduced in British House of Commons for 

 control of the feeble-minded. Debate in Reichstag on the 



German Emperor's threat to Alsace-Lorraine. Retirement 

 of M. Georges Louis, French Ambassador to St. Petersburg. 

 Massenet's opera, "Don Quichottc," produced in 

 London. Turkish garrison in Rhodes surrender. Eugene 

 W. Debs of Indiana nominated candidate for the American 

 Presidency by Socialist National Convention with Mr. Emil 

 Seidel as vice-president. 



18. Resignation of South African Union Finance Min- 

 ister, Mr. Hull. Sid Mohammed Hiba, son of Mai Ainin, 

 becomes Pretender to Sultanate of Morocco. Railway 

 accident in Paris; 13 killed, 43 injured. Japanese cruiser 

 "Kongo, " and U. S. battleship "Texas," the two heaviest 

 and most powerful cruisers yet built, are launched at 

 Barrow-in-Furness, Lancashire and Newport News, Va., 

 respectively. U. S. House of Representatives enlarges 

 powers of committee investigating "Money Trust." 

 Petjtion filed by U. S. District Attorney at New York 

 against Herman Sielcken and others to break up alleged 

 " Coffee Trust." At Wilkesbarre, anthracite mine workers 

 ratify wage agreement in convention and decide to return 

 to work (see May 20). 



19. Aeroplane accident at Amesbury, Wilts., results in 

 death of one spectator. Town of Melvilje, La., inundated 

 by breaking of levee on Atchafalaya river; 500 persons 

 rendered homeless. 



20. Yeprim, Persian Chief of Police, killed in action 

 after gaining a victory over Mujallal-es-Sultan near 

 Hainadan. Prince George of Cumberland killed in motor 

 accident at Friesack in Germany. Enrico Malatesta, an 

 anarchist, sentenced in London to three months' imprison- 

 ment for publishing a libel, and recommended for expulsion. 

 Sentence on Tom Mann, syndicalist leader, reduced by 

 Home Secretary from 6 months to 2 months. Sale of the 

 Dollfus collection of drawings in Paris. Report of the 

 Lorimer Committee made to U. S. Senate. Turkish 

 Council of Ministers decide to expel all Italians from Tur- 

 key, except artisans, widows and orphans and members of 

 religious orders. Anthracite miners and operators sign 

 new agreement at Philadelphia. 



21. Debate in British House of Commons on Board of 

 Trade's regulations for life-saving at sea. King George 

 opens new building of the Royal Society of Medicine in 

 London. Mr. Bonar Law speaks at Glasgow on Tariff 

 Reform. London lightermen strike; British Govt. appoints 

 Court of Inquiry under Sir Edward Clarke. Miners' 

 Federation National Conference meets in London to receive 

 reports on fixing of minimum wage in different districts. 

 Name of the Society of Knights Bachelor is by King 

 George's command changed to Imperial Society of Knights. 

 M. Crombes, Belgian airman, flies across the Channel 

 and back without alighting in England. German Defence 

 Bills are passed by the Reichstag. Italians occupy island 

 of Cos. 



22. Presidential primaries in Ohio show decisive 

 majority for Mr. Roosevelt. Trial of Mrs. Pankhurst and 

 Mr. and Mrs. Pethick Lawrence for conspiracy in con- 

 nection with the London suffragist raids results in sentences 

 of 9 months' imprisonment in the second division. 

 Count Tisza elected President of the Hungarian Chamber 

 after a violent scene. Australian cricket eleven at Lord's 

 beat M.C.C. and Ground by 5 wickets. German Reichstag 

 adjourns till November after violent debate provoked by 

 Socialist attacks on the Emperor. Death at Monte Carlo 

 of Count Osten-Sacken, for 17 years Russian Ambassador 

 in Berlin. Two Calcutta constables convicted of torturing 

 prisoners to extract confessions. International Flower 

 Show opens in London. Provision in Army appropriation 

 bill adopted by conference committee of U. S. Senate and 

 House, which would make Major-General Wood, U. S. 

 Army, ineligible as Chief of Staff. Measure placing so- 

 called Friar Lands under jurisdiction of Philippine Govern- 

 ment passed by U. S. House of Representatives. A 

 murderer in Utah executed by shooting. 



23. Count Berchtold, Austrian Premier, arrives in Berlin 

 on a visit. General strike of freight-handlers in the United 

 States begins. London lightermen's strike spreads to all 

 transport workers connected with the docks. Hungarian 

 General Strike in support of universal suffrage begins with 

 rioting involving much loss of life. M. Paul Deschanel 

 elected President of French Chamber of Deputies in place 

 of M. Brisson. Two battalions of American Marines 

 despatched to Cuba to protect American interests. The 

 "Imperator," of the Hamburg-America line, the largest 

 liner yet built, launched a Hamburg by the German 

 Emperor. News received of the Chinese revolutionary 

 party's successes in Kashgaria. Ven. W. O. Burrows, 

 Archdeacon of Birmingham, appointed Bishop of Truro. 

 Panama Canal bill, admitting American-owned ships free 

 and excluding vessels owned by railroads, passed by the 



