Today -100: October 3, 1914: Of advice, mines, and noses and ears

Pancho Villa executes two supporters of Felix Díaz who try to join his revolt.  A simple no would have sufficed.

Headline of the Day -100:  “Drop Advice From Air.”  German planes drop leaflets on Russian troops, “advising” them that the Russian Army has been routed by Austria and is in retreat, that there is a revolution in Moscow and a revolt in Poland and that, contrary to what they might have heard, Germany does not torture prisoners: “If this were true where could we take the huge army of tormentors and hangmen to kill and torture the hundreds and thousands of Russian prisoners already in our midst?”  In fact, Russian prisoners “are all without exception very happy and comfortable.”

Britain says it will start mining the North Sea to destroy U-boats.

Fog of War (Rumors, Propaganda and Just Plain Bullshit) of the Day -100:  Germany accuses French irregulars of torturing German soldiers at a field hospital in northern France.  The Foreign Office official report: “Their noses and ears had been cut off and they were suffocated by inserting sawdust into their mouths and noses.  Correctness of the evidence taken was authenticated by two French priests.”

Congress rejects an amendment to the Philippines bill to neutralize the country after autonomy but before independence.  This would have required negotiating that neutral status with Britain, Germany, France, Russia, etc, because that worked out so well for Belgium.

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