The Spectator

From 'News of the Week', The Spectator, 1 May 1915: SINCE our last issue the western extremity of the western theatre of the war has been the scene of furious fighting in which the French, Belgians, and British have been engaged. The special feature of this second battle of Ypres, one of the greatest of the war, was the use by the Germans of asphyxiating gases contrary to the most solemn pledges made by them at the Hague Conferences. These deadly gases were not a by-product of the high explosives used in shells, such, for example, stele the gas generated by our Lyddite, but were employed with the deliberate object of poisoning. They were for the greater part manufactured in huge retorts in the German trenches and were then blown by the wind on to the lines of the Allies.

Dick West, a foreign correspondent and longtime contributor to The Spectator, has died. Here's a profile we ran about him in 1989.  One side of Richard West's character is his contrariness. At a time when others fear salmonella he refuses to have his breakfast eggs kept in the refrigerator. At the height of the Band Aid fundraising success, Bob Geldof was added to his list of pet hates. More recently he has criticised the blandness of the Independent ('for Guardian readers with money') and praised the Sun ('a fine newspaper'). His resistance to received opinions lends originality to his writing. He is by no means a simple apologist for the Right. Poland grants him entry visas, but not South Africa.

Today is the 100th anniversary of the first landings of the Gallipoli campaign by Anzac troops. The battle to take control of the Dardanelles and Bosphorous to open a supply route to Russia and force the Ottoman Empire out of the war would, in its eight months, leave 130,000 dead. The Spectator was to report the first news of the landings in its 1 May 1915 issue. Here, from 'News of the Week' in the 24 April 1915 issue, The Spectator speculates about the course of action in the Dardanelles: The other important event of the week has been the landing of a British force at Enos, the most westerly point of Turkish territory in Europe, the point just beyond which the new Bulgarian frontier begins.