Friday, 27 December 1929

Washington:  

Secretary of State Henry Stimson releases a report clearing Italian officials and residents in the United States of inappropriate activity relative to fascism.  He also expresses appreciation to the Fascist League of North America for disbanding.  “The investigation of the incidents referred to in the article in Harper’s magazine [see 26 October] has been completed by this department, and it has not revealed any activities on the part of any resident in this country of Italian extraction or on the part of any Italian officials which were directed against this government or against its institution.”

Rome:  

Pope Pius XI again complains of ill treatment by the fascist government of Italy, and of fascist interference in church publications.  During his Christmas address to the College of Cardinals, the Pope says the Italian government censors church newspapers, erects monuments which the church finds insulting, and has published a book allegedly “explaining” the relationship between church and state, but with which the church disagrees.  He says Catholic youth organizations are falsely accused of political involvement, but he knows this is not so, because the church has given them strict orders not to do so.  Meanwhile, the Pope says, “irreverent publications,” which attack the church, are given free reign to publish without hindrance.  The pope’s speech was not reported in Italy’s fascist newspapers. 

Tokyo:  

Police arrest 180 Korean students at area universities on charges of inciting recent student unrest in Korea as part of a “secret society of communist tendency.” 

Paris:  

Parliament approves a bill near the end of the session appropriating the equivalent of US$40 million in 1930 for construction of the line of forts proposed by Defense Minister Andre Maginot earlier this year, to protect France in the direction of Germany.  The engineering section of the army will get roughly 75% of the funds, which is itself only a portion of the estimated 3 billion francs the government agreed would need to be spent on the fortifications. 

China:  

China rejects Japan’s nomination of Torikichi Obata as its Minister to China.  China’s objection is based on the fact that Obata was Charge d’Affaires in Peking in 1915 when Japan presented China with its now-infamous “Twenty-One Demands,” which asked for humiliating concessions from China.  Japan is refusing to withdraw Obata’s nomination and has asked China if it is fully aware of the consequences potentially arising from the rejection.