page_title: December 1901
section_title: December 18, 1901 (Wednesday)
hierarchical_section_title: December 1901 / December 18, 1901 (Wednesday)
caption_attribution_description: English: David Lloyd George in 1902, Chancellor of the Exchequer and future Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.
context_page_description: The following events occurred in December 1901:
context_section_description: Future British Prime Minister David Lloyd George, a Liberal member of the House of Commons, spoke to a hostile crowd of thousands of people in the Town Hall in Birmingham, after being invited by the Birmingham Liberal Association to give a speech against the Boer War and in criticism of Birmingham's MP, Joseph Chamberlain.  Despite being asked by the Chief Constable of Birmingham to cancel the address because the police could not guarantee his safety, Lloyd George refused and nearly found himself the victim of a riot.  There were 30,000 pro-war protesters surrounding the Hall, which was guarded by 350 policemen, and although the "peace meeting" inside was supposed to be attended only by people who had an invitation, many of the 7,000 people inside began shouting and throwing objects as soon as Lloyd George rose to speak.  Lloyd George was shouted down after delivering his opening line ("This is a rather lively meeting for a peace meeting"), which caused the crowd outside to being breaking windows and pelting the walls with bricks and other missiles.  In order to effect his escape, Lloyd George dressed in a policeman's uniform marched out of the Hall in the middle of a large group of Birmingham police.
  Alfred Milner, 1st Viscount Milner, British High Commissioner for Southern Africa, and Manuel Rafael Gorjão, the Portuguese Governor-General of Mozambique, signed an agreement for Mozambican workers to labor in South Africa's mines. For each worker supplied, the South African colonial government agreed to pay Portuguese authorities 13 shillings for one year's service, along with an additional sixpence for each month beyond the initial contract, as well as paying half of each worker's salary to Portugal "in gold at a favourable rate of exchange".
  "Barbados Joe" Walcott, a black native of British Guiana, won the world welterweight boxing championship, defeating white boxer James "The Kansas Rube" Ferns, with a technical knockout in the fifth round at bout in Buffalo, New York.  Arnold Cream, an admirer of the Barbadan fighter, would win the world heavyweight boxing title while fighting as "Jersey Joe Walcott".
  Albert Einstein resigned from his job as a high school mathematics teacher in Schaffhausen, Switzerland, to apply for an opening at the Swiss Patent Office in Bern.
caption: Lloyd George
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