A Manchester man had returned from a business trip to France and told of his experiences.
He had been near the Swiss border in the war zone having crossed the channel from Folkestone and traveled by train towards Paris realizing with all the military installations just how close the Germans had got to the French capital in the first weeks of the war.He was impressed by the confident air of the Parisians, the veteran members of the French reserves who guarded the railways.
Meeting his Swiss associates he was told that they regarded the Zeppelin threat as German bluff and that the efficiency of the machines was suspect.He walked up to the German frontier but found it a tame experience, expecting to at least hear the firing of guns.
On his return journey across the channel he said that all deck lights were extinguished was surprise that the passengers simply sat down for their meal as if they had never heard of Von Tirpitz and his blockade.
The Manchester and District Engineers employers federation and the Allied Trade unions met to discuss a wage demand of an increase of 5s a week for day workers and the equivalent for piece workers along with a weekly war time bonus of 3s per week.
The conference would break down two days later with the employees saying they are saving £3000 a week.
The Manchester coroner heard the distressing story of the suicide of an eleven year old from Chorlton on Medlock.
Wilfred Love loved with his father, a stained glass worker and poisoned himself with mercuric chloride which he had obtained from a surgery where he worked as a door boy in the evening.
The corner heard that the boy had been ill treated by his stepmother –his brother said his stepmother would not leave him alone and had hit him several times.The jury recorded the verdict that the boy had killed himself by poison and asked the coroner to reprimand the stepmother.
“ do for goodness sake try to behave like a decent women, the corner told her,”do your duty to your husband and whatever other Children there may be.Remember what you are responsible for and the opinion expressed her by those who have heard the case.
Mrs Oakley of Oak Dene Wimslow received notification that her son Private Bertram Whitman had been killed in action in the Eastern Mediterranean. He had joined up at the age of eighteen at the start of the war and had entered the Royal Marines.He had been present at the siege of Antwerp and had been home on Xmas leave.A week earlier she had received a letter from him telling her everything was OK.
The attack on the Dardanelles according to official reports going well with more forts on the Straits being silenced.
A Longsight man was also reported to have been killed in action in the straits.Private Norman Jones was twenty two and had joined the Royal Marine light infantry in Manchester the previous September-he had been stationed in Malta but his last letter did not state on which vessel he was serving.
