THE ARCHIVES

100 years ago

If ever there was a hopeless tangle it is the Government’s Russian policy. The Prime Minister, speaking in the House of Commons, on the question of the blockade against Soviet Russia, said that the maritime policy in the Baltic was that of the Allied and Associated Powers and not of this country alone. There had been, in the strict sense of the term, no blockade of Russian ports. We had been engaged in helping the Baltic provinces in the struggle against Bolshevik Russia with the use of naval powers.

50 years ago

A five-man Board of Trade investigation team flew from London to Lagos last night to try to unravel the mystery of the airliner crash near the Nigerian capital. Eighty-seven people died in the blazing wreckage of the Nigerian Airways VC-10 when it plunged into thick forest 12 miles north of Okeja Airport, only three minutes before it was due to land on a flight from London. The victims – passengers and the 10 members of the all-British crew – included many British families returning to Nigeria from leave. There were no survivors.

25 years ago

John Major stands accused today of “an obscene sense of priorities” over a wine bill of more than £110,000 run up by the Government in the past year for official entertaining. Ministers even have a special “quango” chaired by a former ambassador to France and costing £1,500 a year to run to provide advice on which wines to buy for hospitality events, says Labour MP Alan Milburn. Since 1989 a total of more than £500,000 in taxpayers’ money has been spent on wine for official functions.

One year ago

A police probe has been launched after a gang of thieves caused £5,000 worth of damage during a raid on a Fife charity shop. Two units belonging to Barnardo’s in Dunfermline were targeted. The raiders, who were armed with a crowbar, smashed their way through the front door before causing extensive damage to an internal door in the Aberdour Road shop. The gang stole £200 in cash which had been raised to pay for a volunteer Christmas night out.