April 15—­The total British casualties from the beginning of the war up to April 11 were 139,347, according to an announcement in the House of Commons by the Under Secretary for War; part of Kitchener’s new army, after six months of training, is going into camp at Salisbury Plain, where it is stated that 100,000 men will soon be encamped.

April 16—­The Foreign Office is advised by Ambassador Page that press reports are correct which state that the Germans have put thirty-nine British officers in military detention barracks as a measure of reprisal for British action in refusing honors of war to crews of German submarines; the London Times states that $9,500,000 in life insurance claims has been paid to heirs of British officers thus far killed in action.

April 17—­Wages are rising and unemployment is decreasing.

April 18—­Ten thousand Protestant churches observe “King’s Pledge Sunday,” thousands of persons signing a pledge to abstain from intoxicants for the rest of the war.

April 19—­English Football Association announces that with closing of present season on May 5 no more professional football games will be played during the war.

April 20—­Premier Asquith, in an appeal made at Newcastle to the workmen of the northeast coast to hasten the output of munitions of war, refrains from all mention of the drink question and declares that there has been no slackness on the part of either employes or employers, this statement being at variance with recent statements made by other Cabinet members, who have blamed tippling on the part of workmen for slow output; the Government has made an arrangement by which skilled workmen now at the front can be recalled to England to work in munition factories as needed; David Lloyd George, Chancellor of the Exchequer, says in the House of Commons that the Government does not believe that the war would be more successfully prosecuted by conscription, adding that Kitchener is gratified with the response to his appeal for volunteers; since the war began, 1,961 officers have been killed, 3,528 wounded, and 738 are missing.

April 21—­Chancellor Lloyd George states in the House of Commons that the expeditionary force in France now consists of more than thirty-six divisions, or about 750,000 men; the Chancellor also states that as much ammunition was expended at Neuve Chapelle as was used during the entire Boer war, which lasted for two years and nine months.

April 22—­F.T.  Jane, a well-known British naval expert, in an address at Liverpool declares that the Germans tried to land an expeditionary force in England, but the vigilance of the British Navy caused the expedition to turn back.

April 24—­An official list received in London of the thirty-nine British officers placed in detention barracks by the Germans in retaliation for English treatment of German submarine crews shows the names of seven Captains and thirty-two Lieutenants, included being the names of Lieutenant Goschen, son of a former Ambassador to Berlin; Robin Grey, a nephew of Sir Edward Grey, and many sons of peers.