Turkey surrenders. In order to communicate that news to the British, they freed Maj. General Charles Townshend, who’s been held prisoner since the siege of Kut 2½ years ago, and sent him off as emissary. Rather than celebrating the surrender (I should remind you that the US and Turkey were never at war), the NYT gets snotty (as was the custom) about it, saying that abandoning its ally Germany “was to be expected from the known character of the Ottoman Empire”.
Yekaterina Breshkovskaya, the “Little Grandmother (Babushka) of the Russian Revolution,” is reported to have been executed for opposing the Bolsheviks (after spending 44 years in prison, with the occasional escape, for opposing the tsars). Nope. She will die in 1934 at 90.
Headline of the Day -100:
The Austrian governor flees back to Vienna.
Austria tells Italy that it’s willing to remove its troops from that country, but Italy says no, we’d rather drive you out, but thanks.
The NYT is a little unsure about this, but the Croatian parliament has also declared independence while announcing its intention to join the State of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs, if only because their name is already in it. That state, which will be very short-lived, consists of the Slavic areas of Austria-Hungary. It will soon be absorbed, along with Montenegro, into the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes, which will eventually be called Yugoslavia, although its people are already being called Jugoslavs. I hope that’s clear, because Yugoslav history will never get any clearer. Hell, I can’t decide whether to spell it with the Y or the J, both of which were in use.
Ostend, Belgium celebrates its liberation by flying thousands of Belgian flags, many of which were bought just last week from a German peddler.
NYC Health Commissioner Royal Copeland, ever the optimist, says the Spanish Flu epidemic is now in the “mopping-up stage,” which is kind of gross. His main concern now: all the new orphans (the Spanish Flu hit adults harder than children).
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