PART II.

CHRONICLE OF EVENTS

IN 1924.

JANUARY.

1. The New Year Honours lists included a Viscount (Lord Inchcape) and three Barons, Sir Frederick Banbury (Lord Banbury of Southam), Sir Charles Darling (Lord Darling of Langham), and Sir Herbert Jessel (Lord Jessel of Westminster).

Messrs. Waterlow & Sons were appointed printers of British postage stamps. This is the fourth change of printers since adhesive stamps were introduced into this country, eighty-four years ago.

Mr. Henry Laming made a gift of 50,000l. to Queen's College, Oxford, for the purpose of founding travelling fellowships.

A third supplementary Royal Charter granted to the Institution of Civil Engineers gives to the members the right of describing themselves as "Chartered Civil Engineers."

3. Mr. Howard Carter opened the doors of the three remaining shrines in the tomb of Tutankhamen, and discovered the sarcophagus in which the Pharaoh lies.

At 8 A.M. the level of the Seine at the Pont d'Austerlitz was officially stated to be 6 metres 65 centimetres above the normal, and a further rise was expected.

7. Direct communication by trans-Atlantic cable and land wire was opened by the Western Union Telegraph Co. between London and Chicago.

Mr. G. Washington Browne, R.S.A., was elected President of the Royal Scottish Academy, in place of Sir J. Lawton Wingate, resigned.

8. The Fifth Parliament of King George V. was opened.

Bitter wintry weather, with severe gales on the coasts, was reported from all parts of the British Isles.

9. It was announced that a new political party had come into existence, to be known as the Rural Party.

A

9. A dinner was held at the House of Commons in honour of members of the new Parliament who had been imprisoned on political or religious grounds. Nineteen members of Parliament were qualified to attend the dinner and sixteen were present.

The cold weather continuing, the heaviest fall of snow for several years was experienced in London, the snowstorm being particularly severe in the suburbs.

10. The British submarine L24, after collision with the battleship Resolution, was sunk, with a loss of forty-three lives.

By the collapse of part of the top floor of a spinning mill in Bradford the machinery crashed through to the basement, and many workpeople were killed.

11. The Times reported that as the Board of Education was advised by its inspectors that the schools at Lowestoft were inefficient, the Government grant had been withheld from the local education authorities.

12. The Times announced that Mr. J. W. Archer, a resident of Bournemouth, had presented 20,250l. to the Royal National Lifeboat Institution.

15. The Ven. L. J. White-Thomson, Archdeacon and Canon of Canterbury, appointed to the Bishopric of Ely.

Another violent earthquake occurred in Japan in the same area as that of the previous September.

18. The following gentlemen were appointed King's Counsel: The Hon. Hugh John Godley, Henry H. Slesser, and Col. H. D. F. MacGeagh, C.M.G.

19. The Times announced that the late Mr. E. N. Buxton had presented to the National Trust for the nation Hatfield Forest, situated between Bishop's Stortford and Harlow. The property, which has been maintained as a deer park from Tudor times, is about 215 acres in area and is richly wooded.

22. Mr. Baldwin resigned and Mr. Ramsay MacDonald was charged with the formation of a Ministry-the first Labour Administration in the history of the country.

23. Convention signed between Great Britain and the United States under which search, and possible seizure of British vessels suspected of an intent to infringe the liquor laws of the United States will be permitted at points beyond the three miles limit. In return British vessels will be allowed to carry liquor under seal into United States harbours and out again.

It was announced that the King, acting on the advice of the late Prime Minister (Mr. Baldwin), had nominated the first members of a Commission of Fine Arts for England. The Commission is a purely advisory body and its members are unpaid. The first nine members were Lord Crawford and Balcarres (Chairman), Lord Curzon, Sir Aston Webb, P.R. A., Sir Reginald Blomfield, R. A., Sir Edwin Lutyens, R.A., Mr.

Alfred J. Gotch, Mr. D. Y. Cameron, R.A., Sir George Frampton, R.A., and Mr. T. H. Manson.

26. The new Labour Government announced its decision to remove the wooden barriers in Downing Street and King Charles Street.

--

The Times announced that Sir Daniel Stevenson, the Glasgow coal exporter and a former Lord Provost, had made a gift of 40,000l. to the University of Glasgow for the purpose of founding a chair in Italian and another in Spanish.

30. Eight diplomatic documents, including the agreement concerning Fiume, regulating relations between Italy and Yugoslavia, were published.

FEBRUARY.

3. The innermost shrine in Tutankhamen's tomb was removed and the sarcophagus revealed.

5. The following members of the Labour Government were raised to the peerage: Mr. Sydney Arnold, Under-Secretary for the Colonies (Lord Arnold of Hale), Sir Sydney Olivier, Secretary for India (Lord Olivier of Ramsden), and Brigadier-General Thomson, Secretary for Air (Lord Thomson of Cardington).

8. The list of Resignation Honours was issued, including one baron, Sir John Butcher (Lord Danesfort), nine baronetcies, and sixteen knighthoods.

11. Mr. S. Melton Fisher, A.R.A., was elected a Royal Academician. 12. The lid of the sarcophagus containing the mummy of Tutankhamen was raised.

13. The Times announced that a contract for the salving of the German warships sunk at Scapa Flow on June 21, 1919, had been concluded with the Admiralty by Messrs. Cox & Danks, iron and steel merchants, of Regent Street, London. It is believed that this is the biggest salvage operation that has ever been attempted.

The following were elected Royal Scottish Academicians: Mr. David Gauld (Glasgow); Mr. W. M. Fraser (Edinburgh); and Mr. Fiddes Watt (Edinburgh).

14. The Times reported that owing to a disagreement between Mr. Carter and the Egyptian Government, the latter had ordered the tomb of Tutankhamen to be closed, and work was to cease there for the present. Farne Islands, off the coast of Northumberland, purchased by the National Trust as a bird sanctuary.

-Lord Glanely, on resigning the office of President of University College, Cardiff, presented the College with a further gift of 12,500l., bringing his total contributions to 65,000l.

15. The Prince of Wales lunched with the Prime Minister (Mr. Ramsay MacDonald).

16. Centenary of the foundation of the Athenæum Club.

Severe frosty weather was experienced all over the country during the last four days.

16. The announcement was made that the private library of Mr. J. P. Morgan, in New York, had been handed over to six trustees as a public reference library.

19. Sir Laming Worthington-Evans, M.P., who was PostmasterGeneral in the last Cabinet, appointed editor-in-chief of the Financial News.

The Trustees of the Rockefeller Foundation offered the University of Oxford a gift of 75,000l. for the development of the Department of Biochemistry.

20. Mr. Noel Buxton, Minister of Agriculture and Fisheries, handed over to the National Trust the ancient house, built about 1500, known as Paycockes House, in Coggeshall, Essex.

23. A Hammersmith woman and two young children were killed by falling from the observation balcony of the campanile of Westminster Cathedral.

26. The Times announced that a tablet is to be placed in Westminster Hall to mark the spot where Sir William Wallace was tried in 1305.

28. Dr. H. R. Hall was appointed Keeper of Egyptian and Assyrian Antiquities, and Dr. F. A. Bather Keeper of Geology, at the British Museum.

The Chancellor of the Exchequer received from "Well Wisher" 5,000l. Four per cent. War Loan Stock for cancellation.

Mr. Arthur Henderson, Home Secretary, was returned as member for Burnley, retaining the seat for Labour by a majority of 7,037.

The Oxford Union centenary debate was on the proposition "That civilisation has advanced since the Society first met."

29. The month was exceptional in the severe spell of cold which lasted almost right through its four weeks. Only 548 hours' sunshine were registered at the Rothamsted Experimental Station, being 21 per cent. of the possible total for the month. On the other hand, there was less rain than usual: 7 millimetres as against the normal of 39 millimetres.

MARCH.

1. The Sporting and Dramatic News reached its fiftieth birthday with No. 2633.

For the first time after 288 years, public vehicles were allowed to be driven in Hyde Park.

3. The price of insulin was reduced to a little under 2s. per 100 clinical units.

The price of coal in London rose 2s. per ton.

4. Mr. H. E. Blair, assistant manager and director of the London Underground Railways, was appointed Principal Agent to the Unionist Party in succession to Vice-Admiral Sir Reginald Hall.

Celebration of the Centenary of the Royal National Lifeboat

Institution.

4. The new premises of the Oxford University Press at Amen House, Warwick Square, opened.

6. Official opening by the Egyptian Government of the tomb of Tutankhamen.

7. The Founder's Medal of the Royal Geographical Society awarded to Ahmed Hassanein Bey for his journey in 1923 to Kufra and Darfur.

10. The train from Calais to the Riviera was derailed six miles from Lyons; 4 passengers were killed (3 English travellers and 1 French) and 25 injured.

15. The Times drew attention to the marked decline in the number of entrants to the medical profession—545 in 1923, as against 2,000 in 1922, 2000 in 1921, 2,500 in 1920, and 3,500 in 1919.

-

The first Parliament of independent Egypt was opened.

17. Members of the United States Army Air service began their attempt to fly round the world.

19. Mr. Otto Nicholson, the official Conservative candidate, was returned as member in the by-election of the Abbey Division of Westminster by a majority of 43 over Mr. Winston Churchill.

20. Celebration of the Jubilee of the Physical Society of London. 21. Strike of London tramway and omnibus men commenced.

25. A British world-flight begun under the leadership of SquadronLeader A. Stuart MacLaren.

27. A cloudburst and landslip which caused serious damage and much loss of life occurred on the south side of the Sorrento Peninsula, one of the chief beauty spots of Italy (the "Amalfitan Riviera ").

28. A correspondent of The Times, telegraphing from Taormina, in Sicily, stated that the first northward-flying swallow of the year was observed there.

A great storm in the Mississippi valley between Minnesota and Missouri, with wind, snow, rain, and hail, did serious damage and killed many people.

31. Strike of London tramway and omnibus men ended (see under March 21).

APRIL.

1. An eruption of Stromboli, one of the Lipari Islands, was reported. 2. The National Gallery celebrated its centenary. In honour of the occasion the Government gave a dinner at which the Prime Minister presided.

It was officially announced that since August 4, 1914, 350 soldiers (including officers) had been executed in accordance with sentences of Courts-martial. The offences were: mutiny, 5; cowardice, 18; desertion, 266; murder, 40; striking or violence, 5; disobedience, 5; sleeping on post, 2; quitting post, 7; and casting away arms, 2.

The Times reported that in the four years' chess match, carried on by correspondence, between the London and New York Bars, the latter was defeated.