Today -100: October 17, 1914: Vot you mean, you Gott dam fool?

Herbert Gladstone, son of William and until recently the governor-general of South Africa, tells the NYT that Salmon Maritz’s rebellion is insignificant.  One reason he gives why the Boers would never ally with Germany is the lesson of the Herero, who the Germans slaughtered in next-door Southwest Africa.  Gladstone doesn’t mention that the British sent soldiers to help the Germans put down the Herero.  Including Maritz.

War comes to Nyassaland (Malawi).  A British steamer, the Guendolen, is sent to capture a German steamer Von Pismann.  Except no one had informed the Germans that there was a war on, so when the Guendolen fired at it, missing the first three times, the skipper yelled, evidently in music-hall German, “Vot you mean, you Gott dam fool? If you fire again, you will hit the ship.”

The Germans are demanding that Antwerp, many of whose occupants have fled, provide the occupying troops every day with 21,000 pounds of potatoes, 1,000 pounds of meat, 2,000 bottles of wine and 85,000 cigars.

Or maybe Carranza hasn’t resigned.

Germany claims two British prisoners have admitted that dumdum bullets were issued to them.  They even have a photograph of two bullets, so it must be true.

The Russian Governor-General of Galicia plans to annex Eastern Galicia to Russia, while West Galicia will be part of a Kingdom of Poland, which will be part of the Russian Empire.  He says there is no need for compulsion in religion, “for the peasants pass over very easily to Orthodoxy.”  Fighting is said to be within 8 miles of Warsaw.

Press hysteria has forced London hotels to fire Germans and Austrians (there were a lot of German waiters).

Santa Rosa, California considers helping Belgian refugees immigrate and settle in Santa Rosa.

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