OVERSEAS EVENTS

Patea Mail, 10 January 1940, Page 4

OVERSEAS EVENTS

FATEFUL YEAR’S STORY The following is a list of the principal pre-war occurrences, ami the chief events of the war, in 19159. — JANUARY 15—-16. —Fierce cyclone in Samoa. K 3 bush tire losses estimated at 70 dead and £1,500,000 dam-' age; tires checked by rain;—First Irish Republican Army bcmb outrages in eight English centres. 25. —Disastrous earthquake in Chile; loss of life estimated at 50,000. 20. —Fall of Barcelona. FEBRUARY (5, —Republican Government fled from Spain. 9.—Mr. Alec Henshaw made record return flight from England to Capo in four days 10 hears. 10. —(Death of Pope Pius XI. 15. —United States House of Representatives passed President Roosevelt’s 376,000,000. dollar defence programme. IS. —Opening of Me Golden Cate Exposition at San Francisco. MARCH 2. -British defence estimates, £520, 750,000 announced. 3. —Cardinal Pacelli elected Pope Pius XII. 15,' —German troops entered Prague without meeting resistance and

Czech teniitorv declared a German Protectorate. Id. —Gorrnany took Slovakia under its protection and Hungary proclaimed Rnthenia as a protectorate. ip,—Germany rejected British and French protests at aggression in Czecho-Slovakia. 22, —Lithuania, under pressure transferred territory of Mem el to Germany. og.—Madrid surrendered to Franco’s forces. 29. —Official announcement of the ending of the Spamsn Civil Mar. 31, —British and French guarantee of Polish independence announced. APRIL 1. —Give bomb outrages committed by Irish terrorists occurred in London. — Cambridge defeated Oxford in the annual boat race. 4. —Death of King Ghazi of Irak in motor accident. 7. —-Death of Mr. .1. A. Lyons, Prime Minister of Australia. 5. —ltaly completed the conquest of Albania and King Zog and Queen Geraldine fled the country. 19. yp r . R. G. Monzies chosen as Prime Minister of Australia. . 30. —World’s Fair in N T ew York opened. MAY 1,! —Imperial Airways flying-boat Challenger crashed in Last Africa. 4. Ten bomb outrages by Irish terrorists in English centres; three sentenced to 10 years’ Imprisonment. 6. King George and Queen Elizabeth sailed from Portsmouth to begin tour of Canada and the Lnited States. (Quebec reached cn 17th). 21. King George unveiled Canadian National War Memorial.' — Japan decided not to enter commitments ■which might result in embroilments with Britain, Russia and the United States. 22. —Halo-German 10-year pact signed. 23. United State? submarine Squalus sank off New Hampshire with loss of 2(i men. —Queen Mary slightly hurt in motor collision. 24. King George’s broadcast to Empire from ‘Winnipeg.—English Derby won by. Lord Rosebery’s colt, Blue Peter. 30. —Young American airman, T. H. Smith, lost in attempt to .fly from Maine to Britain in small singleengined aeroplane. JUNE 1. —End of first stage of tour of King and Queen in Canada. » 2. New British submarine Thetis, ‘ which failed to return to surface during trials west of Liverpool, « located 41 miles west of mouth of Mersey; hope abandoned for the OS members of the crow still trapped. 5. —Cause ? of Thetis disaster revealed by builders to be a torpedo tube filled with water. —Attempt on life of the Duchess of Kent in Bel grave Square, London. 3. Enthusiastic welcome to King and

Queen in Washington. Further bomb outrages in London; Irish Republican Army terrorists ' suspected. concentrated on the Bohemian and Slovakian borders adjoining Poland.

22. King and Queen reached Southampton after completion of their Canadian 'and American tour. 27.' —Great lire in heart of 1. on den; damage estimated at £1,000,000. JULY 6.—British Government increased credits to guaranteed Stales, Poland, • Turkey, Rumania and Greece. I(s.—Explosion on P. and O. liner Narkunda near Colombo; four people killed and 27 injured. 20. First death in Irish Republican Army' bomb outrages in London when bomb exploded in King’s Cross railway station. AUG UST S. Stevens Ministry in New South Wales defeated; succeeded by Mair Ministry on August 5. 1,. —Si'r Malcolm Campbell created world record of 141.74 miles an hour in motor-boat Bluebird 11. on Lake Coniston, Lancashire. 21. Anpomicemont of non-aggression pact between Germany and Russia. 2S. —-Hitler made demand for Danzig and Polish Corridor. SEPTEMBER 1. —Germany launched tit tack on Poles; Poland invoked military alliance <-v\itli Britain and requeued aid: Italy’s neutrality declared by

Mussolini. 3. —Mr. Chamberlain announced existence of state of war between Britain and Germany. 4. British liner Athonia torpedoed bv submarine off Scottish coast. Raid by bombers of Koval Air Force on German naval bases at entrance to Kiel Canal. Hostilities on Western Front, opened. Australian tennis team won Davis Cup from America at Philadelphia. 13. —Landing of first portion of British Expeditionary Force in Fram e completed. 17.' —Russia invaded Poland. British aircraft carried Courageous sunk by German submarine. 21. —M. Armand Calinescn, Prime 'Minister of Rumania, assassinated in Bucharest by members of the p'OXazi Iron Guard. 27.—Warsaw capitulated to .invaders. OCTOBER 1 ..—Day of national prayer throughout Empire. 13.—British battleship Royal Oak sunk at Scapa Flow by enemy submarine. 10. — Pact of mutual assistance between Allies ami Turkey announced. 2S. United States Senate repealed the neutrality Act after a debate that lasted four weeks, the “cash and carry” policy thereby being approved. Thirty-live miners killed at the Valley Field colliery, -Fife, Scotland, as a result of an expos! on.

NOVEMBER 7. —Announcement that Queen Wilhelmi mi of the Netherlands, and King Leopold of Belgium, had jointly sent fhfers of mediation to Britain, France and Germany. (These offers had no practical result) . S.--Bomb explosion in Munich beer cellar; Hitler’s narrow escape; nine people hilled and (51 injured. 14. Report that oil port of Langun--1 ill os, on Lake Maracaibo, Venezuela, had been destroyed by lire; .heavy death roll. 15. —Dutch passenger steamer Simon Bolivar destroyed in North Sea by mine, with heavy loss of life. 21. —Mr, Chamberlain announced that Britain had decided upon reprisals against Germany’s illegal methods of laying mines, etc. (Order signilied by the, King on November 27.) 22. George Riser’-s arrest and confession of responsibility for Munich

bomb explosion. 07. British armed merchant cruiser Rawfii-piudi sunk off Iceland const after gallant fight against two German warshps. DECEMBER I.—. Russian invasion of Finland. 3. —Raid by Royal Alir Force on Heligoland; German 'Warships bombed, .Death of Princess Louise, Duchess of Argyle, aged 01 years. 4, —Announcement of sinking ot Doric Star by German raider in South Atlantic. 12.--Assembly of League of Nations offered mediation between Russia and Finland; offer declined by Russia. 14 —The British cruisers Achilles, Ajax and Exeter engaged the Gorman 10,000 ton battleship Admiral Graf Spec near mouth of the River Plate, off Montevideo, forcing her to lake refuge in Montevideo; (52 British prisoners on beard were surrendered to Urugnavan officials.

17. —-The Admiral (!mf Spec farced to leave Montevideo to avoid internment, was Mown up and scuttled at Hitler ’s orders. .19.--Announced that lie Canadian Active Service Force had landin' in England and was • encamped for ■final training. Herman' passenger liner Columbus scuttled in Atlantic to avoid capture by destroyer. 20. —Captain Hans LangsdorfT. commander of the Admiral Oraf Spec, committed suicide at '.Montevideo.

2;". —Officially aimouneed from Helsinki that Finnish troops were lighting on Russian soil for the first, time since the invasion. 27. —Enormous casualties , reported among the Russian troops in Finland. • 28. —Finns' pressing into Russia, foa'di White Sea. Terrific earthquake in Asia .Minor and Morocco.