100 years ago

THE current conflict was the most remarkable in modern history. A military correspondent pointed out that the numbers engaged, the perfection of the organised forces, the deadliness of the weapons employed, and the greatness of the issues at stake all combined to render this gigantic clash of arms famous above all others in the story of the nations.

We needed not to conceal from ourselves, he added, that the long and continuous retreats which had been imposed upon the Allies by the failure of the first conception of the French Staff had been exceedingly galling to the Allied Armies, and had in some degree diminished their efficiency. A retreat was a confession of inferiority, and the loss of men and war material incidental to all retreats had an influence upon opinion which could not be disregarded.

But the spirit of the Allied Armies had, so far as we knew, risen superior to these misfortunes. It was probably true that there were 3,000,000 men engaged in this great battle. We had sent out to our Army the men, horses, and war material necessary to replace losses, and the French, who were fighting at home, had certainly done the same.

 

50 years ago

CHANGING eating habits in Britain were examined at a meeting of York Women’s Gas Federation at the North Eastern Gas Board’s Davygate headquarters, when a talk on Food Cookery and Kitchens was given by Miss M Lovell Burgess, who was lectures officer for the Gas Council and a member of the headquarters branch of the Women’s Gas Federation.

At one time she said the breakfast hour was a peak demand period at gasworks. Nowadays people were losing the habit of having a cooked breakfast and there was “only a ripple” of extra demand at that time. Miss Lovell Burgess discussed the popularity of frozen foods and cake mixes in southern England and the decreasing use of seasoning and flavouring in hotel cooking.

She also examined the slowness of acceptance in Britain of new trends such as automatic cooking and split-level ovens. Experiments had shown, she said, that it was possible to cook successfully even dishes like Yorkshire puddings. starting from a cold oven. But British women did not yet seem ready to adopt these methods.

 

25 years ago

MORE than 96 per cent of people in the Selby district had returned their poll tax forms. Only one person had refused to be registered, and the council was currently chasing up the 1,335 forms not yet returned out of 34,491 sent out.

The council’s treasurer designate, Mr Martin Connor, said the response was encouraging. “We thought more people might try to avoid it, but the situation in the Selby district is reflected throughout the country,” he said.