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460 War-time Activities. During the first month of the World War three city battalions were raised by the Lord Mayor, and the recruits under the voluntary system overflowed into several other new battalions of the Warwickshire regiment.- It is estimated that Birmingham contributed to the fighting forces of the nation at least 148,000 men. Over 11,000 Birmingham men were killed, and the long list of local military distinctions includes the names of II winners of the V.C. The amount of money for the prosecution of the war raised in four separate weeks of special War Loan cam- paigns was 26,368,879, exclusive of several millions invested by the Corporation and local companies, individuals and trade unions through the banks and post-office.

Birmingham was the first city to put into operation a compre- hensive food-rationing scheme, and this scheme afterwards became the basis of the plan adopted by the Government for the whole country.

At the university buildings at Edgbaston, which were the head- quarters of the 1st Southern General Hospital, 1,358 beds were provided and at the branch hospitals further accommodation was provided until there was a total of 6,168 beds. In addition to the 64,000 wounded men treated at the university 20,000 patients were received at the Poor Law infirmary in Dudley Rd., 8,000 in elementary schools at Stirchley and King's Heath, -5,000 at the Monyhull Colony belonging to the board of guardians and at A. D. and civilian hospitals 5,000, making a total of over 100,000 military and naval patients. These huge figures did not include the record of the 1st and 2nd Birmingham War Hospitals, which were established under an arrangement with the asylums committee of the Corporation. At the Rubery and Hollymoor Mental Hospitals 36,795 wounded men, mostly orthopaedic cases, requiring special treatment, were nursed back to health.

The fact that Birmingham was one of the most important muni- tion-making centres in England being well known to the Germans, they naturally made efforts to bomb the city from the air. For some time they were unsuccessful, owing to the severe lighting restrictions enforced by the chief constable in conjunction with the Home Office. Zeppelins, which caused serious destruction and loss of life in the Black Country on Jan. 31 1916, passed over the city without doing any damage. In consequence of representa- tions made to the Government by the Lord Mayor of Birmingham on behalf of the municipalities of the Midlands, more effective means were taken to warn the inhabitants of impending air raids, and the anti-aircraft defences were also considerably improved before the next Zeppelin raid, which took place on Oct. 19 1917. On this occasion bombs were dropped on the Austin works at Long- bridge, near the city boundary, but little damage was done. The third and final air attack on Birmingham took place on April 12 1918, when five Zeppelins set out to bomb the industrial towns of the Midlands. L6o made direct for Birmingham, but timely warning was received at the headquarter^ of the Birmingham anti-aircraft defence in Newhall St., and when the airship was passing over Coventry it was met by gunfire and searchlights. These caused the raider to drop bombs in the open country in order to lighten his ship. When passing over Hockley Heath, just out- side the city boundary, at an altitude of about 5 m., L6o be- came an illuminated target for at least one of the Birmingham anti-aircraft guns. When the second and third Birmingham guns came into action the enemy turned tail, dropped two bombs, the first on the Robin Hood golf course and the other near Manor Farm, Shirley, and made a rapid retreat over Lapworth.

In addition to the thousands of Birmingham women who worked on munitions, 15,000 migrated into the city during the war. The Birmingham women's war agricultural committee, the women's volunteer reserve and the various naval and military auxiliaries also found employment for hundreds of girls. Among the many voluntary organizations in which ladies played a leading part, special mention should be made of the lady mayoress's depot, from which 273,553 garments and other articles were sent to soldiers at the front and in hospital, and 130,162 parcels were sent to 1,531 prisoners of war, the depot being the regimental care committee for the Warwickshire regiment. The war hospitals supply branch of the depot, which was established in March 1916, supplied 827,176 surgical requisites to the war hospitals. The war refugees committee and the citizens' committee were also mainly composed of women, the latter organization being responsible for a remarkable network of agencies for the relief of all kinds of civilian distress arising from the war, and for meeting the needs of soldiers' families and men broken in the war. (E. S.)

BIRRELL, AUGUSTINE (18505- ), English author and politician (see 3.989), continued to be Chief Secretary for Ireland till the Dublin rebellion of Easter 1916, over nine years in all a tenure of exceptional length of this particular office. The cattle- driving agitation died down, and Irish politics, save for labour troubles, were comparatively quiet, till the two general elections of 1 910 had once again made retention of office by the leaders of the Liberal party dependent on the Irish vote. A third Home Rule bill was now inevitable, and Mr. Birrell spent much of the

autumn of 1911 in preparation for it, being cheered by the appreciation of him shown by his young Scottish fellow-country- men in his election to the Lord Rectorship of Glasgow. The main conduct of the bill was, however, taken out of his hands in the sessions of 1912, 1913, and 1914 by Mr. Asquith, the Prime Minister; but he frequently wound up the debates, and was largely responsible for the treatment of details in committee. When resistance was organized in Ulster, when volunteers were enlisted and drilled in the province, and a provisional govern- ment constituted, he adopted the laisser-faire attitude which had throughout been the mark of his Irish administration; and he applied the same treatment to the Irish volunteers who were raised in reply in the Sinn Fein and Nationalist interest. In all the earlier discussions in Parliament, he made light of the Ulster difficulty, and was frequently betrayed into inappropriate flippancy. Talking of Ulster and religious bigotry, he said that he had his own views of ecclesiastics; he had been in close touch with cardinals and archbishops, and " commended them all to God." But towards the end of the debates, he adopted a worthier manner, and advocated a national solution, and settle- ment by consent. In a striking phrase in the debate on the address in 1914, he spoke of a new Ireland, not necessarily Home Rule or Nationalist, but " the renaissance of a nation." When the World War broke out the controversy about Ulster was stilled as Home Rule was in abeyance, and in the Coalition Government of 1915 Mr. Birrell had Sir Edward Carson as a colleague, and would have had Mr. Redmond also had Mr. Redmond consented to accept Mr. Asquith's invitation. The danger with which he had to cope now came not from Orange- men or constitutional Nationalists, but from extremists of the Sinn Fein, Irish-American and Irish Labour parties, of whom Casement and Larkin were the apparent leaders. They pro- moted a strong and largely successful propaganda against enlist- ment in Ireland, which he entirely failed to extinguish, and which culminated suddenly in open rebellion at Easter 1916 (see IRELAND, HISTORY). Immediately after the suppression of the rising Mr. Birrell resigned, rather plaintively explaining that he was aware that he had run grave and considerable risks in not tackling Sinn Fein, but that he had subordinated everything in order to maintain unbroken the front of Ireland towards the enemies of the Empire. His retirement from office was followed by retirement from Parliament in 1918. He resumed his literary work, and published in 1920 a life of his father-in-law, the poet Frederick Locker-Lampson. His wife died in 1915.

BISSOLATI-BERGAMASCHI, LEONIDA (1857-1920), Italian statesman, was born at Cremona Feb. 20 1857. The son of Demetrio Bergamaschi, he was adopted by, and took the name of, his- stepfather, Prof. Bissolati, the philosopher. At an early age he became a Socialist through his genuine sympathy with the lot of the poor, and an active member of the Italian Socialist party from its foundation in 1892. He exercised con- siderable influence as a journalist, editing the weeklies La Critica sociale and La Lotta di classe, and then the daily official organ of the party, L'Avanti. In 1897 he entered Parliament as member for Pescarolo; he afterwards was elected for Budrio and then for the second division of Rome (1908), which he represented until his death. Although a firm believer in the Socialist doctrine, Bissolati became more and more dissatisfied with certain aspects of the policy of the party, notably with its anti-patriotic attitude at the time of the Libyan War. In 191 1 the split came, and Bisso- lati, together with Bonomi and some other leading Socialists, seceded from the party and formed what was known as the Reformist Socialist group, which supported the Giolitti Cabinet in its African policy on its promise of democratic reforms. At the outbreak of the World War Bissolati did not hesitate, and from the first declared himself in favour of Italian intervention on the side of the Entente against German militarism, whereas the " official " Socialist party was frankly neutralist and pro- German. When Italy entered the war he joined the army as a sergeant of the Alpini and was wounded and decorated for valour. In June 1916 the Boselli national Cabinet was constituted and Bissolati accepted office as minister without portfolio,