GREAT BRITAIN.
April 1—Lord Kitchener follows the lead of King George in announcing his intention to abstain from liquor during the war; the nation is stirred by the drink question, and prominent observers believe that anti-alcohol legislation will not be necessary; 25,000 women volunteer to aid in making munitions of war.
April 2—Text is made public of a protest by Germany, transmitted through the American Ambassador in London, against treatment of captured German submarine crews; Germany threatens reprisals in the form of harsh treatment of captured British officers; Sir Edward Grey in reply says the submarine crews have violated the laws of humanity and they are segregated in naval barracks.
April 3—Government takes control of all motor manufacturing plants to accelerate the supplying of war material.
April 4—The Archbishop of Canterbury in his Easter sermon dwells upon the national necessity for prohibition during the war; a band of the Irish Guards, arriving in Dublin on a recruiting tour, is enthusiastically cheered; John E. Redmond reviews at Dublin 25,000 of the Irish National Volunteers; Limerick welcomes recruiting officers; every man in the British Navy has received a pencil case, the gift of Queen Mary, formed of a cartridge which had been used "somewhere in France," with silver mountings.
April 6—Official announcement states that "by the King's command no wines or spirits will be consumed in any of his Majesty's houses after today"; George M. Booth heads committee appointed by Kitchener to provide such additional labor as is needed for making sufficient war supplies.
April 8—Official report of the bombardment of Hartlepool, Scarborough, and Whitby by a German naval squadron on Dec. 16 states that 86 civilians were killed and 424 wounded, of whom 26 have died; 7 soldiers were killed and 14 wounded; nearly all industries are working at top speed; unemployment has largely disappeared; King Albert's birthday is celebrated in London by Belgian refugees, many thousands of English joining in the observance.
April 9—A "White Paper" is published giving correspondence which passed between the British and German Foreign Offices through the United States Ambassador regarding treatment of British prisoners of war in Germany; testimony which is included is to the effect that Germans treat British prisoners brutally; John B. Jackson of the American Embassy at Berlin, who, on behalf of the German Government, recently inspected German prison camps in England, reports that prisoners are well cared for; Captain and crew of the steamer Vosges, sunk in March by a German submarine, are rewarded for persistent attempt to escape the submarine; in party circles it is accepted as a fact that there will be no general election this year, and that the terms of the present Members of Parliament will be extended.
April 11—A great campaign to obtain recruits for Kitchener's new army is begun in London, it being planned to hold 1,500 meetings.
April 12—Government is now transferring men from the working forces of municipalities to factories, making munitions of war.
April 13—Official announcement states that 33,000 women had registered themselves up to the end of March for war service, as being ready to undertake various forms of labor in England usually done by men; the Foreign Office cables the United States State Department, asking that an investigation be started at once of Berlin reports that thirty-nine British officers have been put in a military prison as a measure of reprisal for England's declining to accord full privileges to German submarine prisoners; a serious explosion occurs at Lerwick, Shetland, in which many persons are killed; Lerwick is one of the chief stations in Scotland for the Royal Naval Reserve.
April 14—Report from Field Marshal French on the Neuve Chapelle fight is made public; the British losses were 12,811 in killed, wounded, and missing; German losses are declared to have been several thousand more; French says his orders were badly executed in some instances, resulting in disorganization of infantry after victory was won; it is intimated that British artillery fired on British troops; Government decides against placing cotton on the contraband list; Government is making huge purchases of wheat.
April 15—The total British casualties from the beginning of the war up to April 11 were 139,347, according to an announcement in the House of Commons by the Under Secretary for War; part of Kitchener's new army, after six months of training, is going into camp at Salisbury Plain, where it is stated that 100,000 men will soon be encamped.
April 16—The Foreign Office is advised by Ambassador Page that press reports are correct which state that the Germans have put thirty-nine British officers in military detention barracks as a measure of reprisal for British action in refusing honors of war to crews of German submarines; the London Times states that $9,500,000 in life insurance claims has been paid to heirs of British officers thus far killed in action.
April 17—Wages are rising and unemployment is decreasing.
April 18—Ten thousand Protestant churches observe "King's Pledge Sunday," thousands of persons signing a pledge to abstain from intoxicants for the rest of the war.
April 19—English Football Association announces that with closing of present season on May 5 no more professional football games will be played during the war.
April 20—Premier Asquith, in an appeal made at Newcastle to the workmen of the northeast coast to hasten the output of munitions of war, refrains from all mention of the drink question and declares that there has been no slackness on the part of either employes or employers, this statement being at variance with recent statements made by other Cabinet members, who have blamed tippling on the part of workmen for slow output; the Government has made an arrangement by which skilled workmen now at the front can be recalled to England to work in munition factories as needed; David Lloyd George, Chancellor of the Exchequer, says in the House of Commons that the Government does not believe that the war would be more successfully prosecuted by conscription, adding that Kitchener is gratified with the response to his appeal for volunteers; since the war began, 1,961 officers have been killed, 3,528 wounded, and 738 are missing.
April 21—Chancellor Lloyd George states in the House of Commons that the expeditionary force in France now consists of more than thirty-six divisions, or about 750,000 men; the Chancellor also states that as much ammunition was expended at Neuve Chapelle as was used during the entire Boer war, which lasted for two years and nine months.
April 22—F.T. Jane, a well-known British naval expert, in an address at Liverpool declares that the Germans tried to land an expeditionary force in England, but the vigilance of the British Navy caused the expedition to turn back.
April 24—An official list received in London of the thirty-nine British officers placed in detention barracks by the Germans in retaliation for English treatment of German submarine crews shows the names of seven Captains and thirty-two Lieutenants, included being the names of Lieutenant Goschen, son of a former Ambassador to Berlin; Robin Grey, a nephew of Sir Edward Grey, and many sons of peers.
April 25—Jamaica begins raising money to send a contingent to join Kitchener's army.
April 26—The "war babies" question is to be investigated by a committee headed by the Archbishop of York, and a report is to be made.
April 27—Lord Kitchener, speaking in the House of Commons, scores the Germans for what he declares to be their barbarous methods of conducting war; the importation of raw cotton from the United Kingdom is specifically prohibited; Lord Derby, in an address at Manchester, intimates that conscription is to come soon; British War Office states that medical examination shows that Canadian soldiers died in the Ypres fight from poisoning by gases employed by the Germans.
April 28—Clergy oppose prohibition, the lower house of the Convocation at York going on record as believing it would be unwise and would lead in the end to an excess of intemperance; opposition newspapers and politicians are criticising the conduct of affairs by Winston Churchill, First Lord of the Admiralty.
April 30—Large numbers of protests from all parts of the country are being made against the proposal of Chancellor Lloyd George to increase the duty on alcoholic drinks.