March 2--Order in Council promulgated providing for prize money for
crews of British ships which capture or destroy enemy vessels to be
distributed among officers and men at rate calculated at $25 for each
person aboard the enemy vessel at beginning of engagement; British spy
system has been so perfected that it is said in some respects to excel
the German; Embassy in Washington denies that women or children are
interned in civilian camps.
March 4--Government appeals to aviators of British nationality in United
States and Canada to join the Royal Flying Corps.
March 8--Shipowner offers $2,000 apiece to next four merchant ships
which sink German submarines.
March 9--House of Commons authorizes Government to take over control of
engineering trade of country in order to increase output of war
munitions.
March 14--John E. Redmond, leader of the Irish Nationalist Party,
declares in speech that Ireland is now firmly united in England's cause,
and that 250,000 Irishmen are fighting for Britain.
March 15--Kitchener discusses the war situation in House of Lords, he
expresses anxiety over supply of war materials and blames labor unions
and dram shops in part for the slow output; he praises the Canadian and
Indian troops and the French Army; passport rules for persons going to
France are made more stringent.
March 16--Heavy losses among officers cause anxiety; T.P. O'Connor says
Irish are with the Allies; stringent passport rules are extended to
persons going into Holland.
March 19--In six days 511 officers have been lost in killed, wounded,
and missing; newspapers hint at conscription.
March 20--Officers lost since beginning of the war, in killed, wounded,
and missing, now total 5,476, of which 1,783 have been killed.
March 23--It is reported that a second German spy was shot in the Tower
of London on March 5, that a third spy is under sentence, and that a
fourth man, a suspect, is under arrest.
March 24--Earl Percy is acting as Official Observer with the
expeditionary force; warships are ordered not to get supplies from
neutral nations in Western Hemisphere.
March 26--Field Marshal French says that "the protraction of the war
depends entirely upon the supply of men and munitions," and if this
supply is unsatisfactory the war will be prolonged; German newspapers
charge British atrocities at Neuve Chapelle; Colonial Premiers may meet
for consultation before terms of peace are arranged.
March 27--Storm of protest is aroused by suggestions of Dr. Lyttelton,
Headmaster of Eton, that concessions should be made to Germany.
March 28--Premier Asquith is attacked by the Unionist press for alleged
lack of vigor in direction of the war.
March 30--Three of the nine prison ships on which prisoners have been
kept are vacated, and it is planned to empty the others by the end of
April, prisoners being cared for on shore.
March 31--King George announces that he is ready to give up use of
liquor in the royal household as an example to the working classes, it
being stated that slowness of output of munitions of war is partly due
to drink; Lord Derby announces that Liverpool dock workers are to be
organized into a battalion, enlisted under military law, as a means of
preventing delays in making war supplies.