Today -100: March 10, 1915: Of prefects, aliens, and hostages

The British Parliament votes to allow the government to take over the country’s entire engineering industry.

The Germans have supposedly arrested Felix Trepont, the French prefect of the Nord, for opposing something or other about raising the funds demanded by Germany from occupied French cities. Actually, I think Trepont was just taken hostage along with other notables, as was the custom. Le Matin also claims that German troops’ morale is very low and they often cry when ordered to the front, and their commander has ordered all civilian clothing stored in the citadel to prevent soldiers wearing it when they desert.

The New York Legislature revises its previous ban on aliens being employed on public works. Now they’ll be allowed when US citizens are “not available.” The building of the NY subway system can go on.

Rumors say Bulgaria has just mirrored events in Greece, with a neutralist king firing a prime minister who wanted to take his country into the war.

The military governor of Smyrna has come up with a solution to the problem that the guns of the Turkish forts on the Dardanelles have a shorter range than those of the British ships: arrest male citizens of enemy nations and use them as human shields.

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