697
Stamford Raffles, Lieutenant-Governor of Java, urged London to bypass our European partners and trade directly with Japan.
On February 13, 1814, Stamford Raffles (1781-1826) in Java wrote to Lord Minto, former Governor-General of India, urging London to pursue a more vigorous trade policy with Japan. Previous trade links had employed Dutch agents, but Raffles believed that Britain would do better by trading directly rather than through European partners.
Picture: Via Wikimedia Commons. Public domain.. Source.
Posted January 28 2020
698
A. A. Milne warns that marketing cricket to people who don’t like the game must not spoil it for those who do.
Even in the days of Jack Hobbs and Wilfred Rhodes people were talking about the need to ‘brighten up’ the game of cricket, much as they do today. Writing shortly after the end of the Great War, ardent cricket fan A. A. Milne (of Winnie-the-Pooh fame) just wanted his beloved game back.
Picture: © Bollywood Hungama, Wikimedia Commons. Licence: CC BY-SA 3.0.. Source.
Posted January 26 2020
699
From the grateful solitude of his library in the Dordogne, Michel de Montaigne reflects on the companionship of his cat.
In 1571, aged 38, busy lawyer and courtier Michel de Montaigne (1533-1592) retired to the library of his residence in the Dordogne and began writing essays on a wide range of subjects. His solitude was dear to him and his wife Françoise and daughter Léonore let him have it; but he did not spend it entirely alone.
Picture: By Loliloli, Wikimedia Commons. Licence: Public domain.. Source.
Posted January 25 2020
700
The Gallipoli landings in 1915 did not achieve the Admiralty’s goals, but for John Masefield they remained one of the proudest moments of the Great War.
The Dardanelles Campaign of April-December 1915, during the Great War, is remembered especially for the Anzac and Indian troops who gave their lives on the Gallipoli Peninsula in western Turkey. Then as now it was regarded as a failure by many, but John Masefield took quite another view — of the campaign, and of failure itself.
Picture: Australian War Memorial Collection, via Wikimedia Commons. Licence: Public domain.. Source.
Posted November 28 2019
701
By 1915, the Allies were struggling to break through Germany’s Western Front, and so began looking for another line of attack.
In the Great War of 1914-1918, the German Empire’s bid for European domination was backed by the Ottoman Empire, now controlled by the infamous Ismail Enver and his ‘Young Turks’. The Allies desperately wanted to take the Turks out of the war, and open up a third front to release pressure on France and the Russian Empire.
Picture: By Charles Dixon (1872-1934), Archives New Zealand, via Wikimedia Commons. Licence: CC BY-SA 2.0 generic.. Source.
Posted November 26 2019
702
George served in the Roman army and lies buried in Israel, yet he makes an ideal patron for England.
It is sometimes said that England’s patron saint, St George, is not very English. Yet Britain in his day was part of the Roman Empire, and George refused to help the Roman Emperor send troops against his own people, meddle with the Church or impose cruel and arbitrary punishments — all key provisions of The Great Charter of 1215. You can’t get more English than that.
Picture: © Josep Renalias, Wikimedia Commons. Licence: CC BY-SA 3.0.. Source.
Posted November 22 2019