Today -100: August 10, 1916: Of red crosses, polio, suspicious Norwegians, and censors

Germany says it will retaliate against British interference with supplies shipped from the US to the German Red Cross by seizing Red Cross supplies at sea. Swell.

New York City polio death toll = 1,260. The 1916-17 public school year, due to start on September 11, will be postponed.

Jersey City police arrest two Norwegians for being “suspicious persons,” which is evidently a crime in New Jersey, where if somebody isn’t a suspicious person that’s pretty suspicious. I’m guessing these are the two “Austro-Hungarians” they were talking about a couple of days ago. The police search their rooms and find drawings of a submarine, marked as accepted by the Chief of the Submarine Department, which doesn’t exist, so I gather they’re gullible would-be spies and someone sold them fake plans.

The British have loosened military censorship since the start of the Battle of the Somme. Including pictures.

There is increasing agitation in Denmark against the sale of the Danish West Indies to the United States. On general principles and because it was for so little money (although some in the US are grumbling that the islands are costing five times as much per acre as the Panama Canal territory.

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