370 Members of Parliament send a telegram to Lloyd George, demanding he present Germany with a bill for the total cost of the war. He responds threatening to call a general election. The French Senate passes a similar resolution demanding Germany be made to pay through its collective anus.
German Defense Minister Gustav Noske threatens to use force to return Bavaria to “order.” “If blood is spilled it will be on the heads of the Communist maniacs.”
The Council of Four decide to put ex-kaiser Wilhelm on trial before a special tribunal for violation of international morality and for breaking treaties.
US troops in Archangel refuse to fight the Bolsheviks, because they’re expecting to be relieved when warmer weather makes sea navigation possible, around June 1st, and anyway the Great War is over and the US isn’t supposed to be at war with Russia and we don’t wanna. Their officers eventually talk them around, telling them they were fighting defensively to save their own lives.
Secretary of State Robert Lansing warns California that yet more anti-Japanese legislation (a bill to prevent Japanese leasing agricultural land is under consideration, joining the existing ban on ownership) would be “particularly unfortunate” at this time. And, surprisingly, this time the Lege plays nice (the leasing ban will be passed by a ballot initiative in 1920).
A day after British soldiers shot protesters in Amritsar, India, a British missionary, Marcella Sherwood, is stripped and beaten by a mob. Gen. Reginald Dyer will order that everyone using the street on which this happened (including residents with no other way to get to their homes) will crawl its length on their hands and knees. He will later explain, “Some Indians crawl face downwards in front of their gods. I wanted them to know that a British woman is as sacred as a Hindu god and therefore they have to crawl in front of her, too.”
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