The Rise of Facism and Taxes
Events of a future war were foreshadowed when on 15 November Benito Mussolini founded his fascist newspaper “Il Populo d’Italia”. We tend to forget that Mussolini was way ahead of Hitler in founding the movement. Fascist comes from the term Fasci used in Sicily to describe groups banding together for political purposes. The Latin origin is fasces, literally “bundles”, which was the symbol used by the Fascist Party in Italy. Benito resigned from the Italian Socialist Party on the 24th. On the 21st another event that will come back to haunt us, the British Army conquers Basra. This was an extension of the Gallipoli campaign against the Ottoman Empire. In fact things around the Mediterranean were hotting up. On the 5th Britain annexed Cyprus ostensibly to prevent it falling to Turkey, war against that country being declared on the same day. Only a few days earlier Russia had declared war on the Ottoman Empire.
An even more painful event that resonates today was the announcement that income tax would be doubled to pay for the war.
The first battle of Ypres (wipers to the Tommies) resulted in the British and French forces being victorious on the 22nd. The German response was to burn much of Ypres to the ground in bombing raids over the next few days. This temporary success fuelled the idea the “it would all be over by Christmas”. It was not, however, such a good month for the navy. The first naval defeat was not in the North Sea or the Atlantic but in the Eastern Pacific. Admiral Graf Maximillian von Spee* sank HMS Good Hope and HMS Monmouth and this was on the 1st of the month. As if the trials of war were not enough on the 26th HMS Bulwark was blown apart at her moorings, 796 of the crew of 805 were killed. This followed the loss of 85 lives when the SS Rohilla, requisitioned as a hospital ship, was grounded in a storm off Whitby. To add insult to injury on 3rd the Germans had made a daylight raid on Great Yarmouth, which was at that time a major fishing port.
It was not all doom and gloom. The most popular film was Mack Sennet’s “Tilleys Punctured Romance” starring Charlie Chaplin and Mabel Norman. Not only that but Pollyanna was first published.
And to finish on the theme of what resonates today, Palmolive soap was heavily advertised and Kodak brought out a new sports camera.
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