WAR AND PEACE

The 24^th October seems to be bound up with battles and treaties.

On this day in 1360, the Treaty of Brétigny is ratified at Calais, marking the end of the first phase of the Hundred Years War and on this day in 1648 the Peace of Westphalia is signed, marking the end of the Thirty years war. 

This is the 200^th anniversary of the Battle of Maloyaroslavets which took place on 24^th October 1812, between the Russians, under Marshall Mikhail Illarionovich Kutuzov, and part of the corps of Eugène de Beauharnais, Napoleon’s 's stepson, under General Alexis Joseph Delzons which numbered about 20,000 strong. A temporary French victory  - but with the loss of a quarter of the men, 5000 casualties, which included General Delzons.

It is also the hundredth anniversary of the Battle of Kumanov which concluded on this day with a Serbian victory. The Battle of Kumanovo or Battle of Kumanova on the 23^rd and 24^th October 1912 was a major battle of the First Balkan Ware. It was an important Serbian victory over the Ottoman army in Vardar Macedonia, shortly after the outbreak of the war. After this defeat, the Ottoman army abandoned the major part of Vardar Macedonia, suffering heavy losses in manpower (mostly due to desertions) and in war materiel.

The United Nations officially came into existence on 24^th October 1945 upon ratification of the Charter by the five then-permanent members of the Security Council—France, the Republic of China, the Soviet Union, the United Kingdom and the United States—and by a majority of the other 46 signatories. The first meetings of the General Assembly, with 51 nations represented, and the Security Council, took place in Methodist Central Hall Westminster in London in January 1946.

This brings us back to the proposed centenary celebrations of the various battles of the First World War. In the United States, Veterans Day, which was observed on the fourth Monday in October, fell on the 24^th October in 1977 for the seventh and last time. Since 1978, the holiday is once again observed on the 11^th of November. This, in my view is as it should be. If anything the end of war and the creation of the United Nations is a day of celebration.