Thousands of pounds worth of damage was caused to the works of Premier and Waterproof rubber Co. in Danztic Street after a fire broke out in the spreading room. Four workmen were forced to jump from first floor windows to escape and the flammable naphtha tanks were removed before the fire caught hold.
There were fears that ratepayers in Manchester would be seeing rises of 3d in the pound, the blame was put on war expenditure and loss of contributions from the Ship Canal Company.
A man was found by his wife in Heaton Norris with a piece of string fastened around his neck and and the other end attached to the bedpost. Robert William Cox had been at work that day and no reason could be found for his suicide.
Two old boys from Manchester Grammar school were mentioned in dispatches. Second lieutenant Rupert Palmer of the East Lancs and Captain PA Lloyd Jones were mentioned by General French.The latter had fought in the Boer War.
The Bishop of Manchester dismissed the idea that had been suggested in the London Times that the clergy should be allowed to fight in the war.”it was an impossible idea that a clergyman should go out to shoot a German and then minister to him in his dying moments” adding that their work at home, in the relief of distress, in hospitals and as chaplains in the camps were ample proof that they were doing their share in the mom et of the nations need.
Traffic congestion was being debated at the council, in particular the problems that Ship canal dock traffic passing through the streets of the city centre.It was said that sixty per cent of it would be prevented if the joint Corporations of Manchester and Salford would jointly put a strong bridge over the Irwell at Woden Street leading into Hulme Hall Road.This would be a much better solution that road widening in the city centre said the councillors.
The case of John Roberts who was a greengrocer carrying on business’s on Stretford Road, Alexander road and Oxford road was being heard in the bankruptcy court.Roberts attended from Knutsford gaol.
It had turned out that he had been made a bankrupt give years earlier in Cardiff in the same business and had not been discharged.The court heard that in Dec 1914 he discovered that £400 was missing and told his creditors that he had been robbed off that money from a relative.Nonetheless he received goods worth £700 from his creditors but it turned out that the money had actually been lost on the racecourse betting.
He was remanded in custody with the case adjourned until the end of March.
Readers of the Evening News were reminded that exactly one hundred years ago Napoleon escaped from Elba setting in motion a chain of events which would lead to Waterloo.news of his escape reached the allies who were in Vienna drawing up plans to rearrange the map of Europe that Napoleon had altered so much.
“Now once again”, said the paper, “the map of Europe will have to be redrawn on lines high will strengthen peaceful nations, which will make unlikely a war of revenge and which will secure peace for a long time.
