Friday, 28 February 1930

Russia:  

The campaign against religion continues.  Atheist, trade groups and city soviets report they have closed 81 churches throughout Russia in the past week.  The president of the Atheist League gives a speech, broadcast nationwide, in which he urges even more intense religious persecution.  “We must be cleverer than the Pope.  We mustn’t use the institution of stake burning and the guillotine, like the Roman church.  We must propagandize.”  Soviet officials continue to characterize the closings, and the arrests of religious leaders, as prosecution of political dissent, rather than religious persecution.

Berlin:  

Meanwhile in the Reichstag, nationalist party members announce that they intend to question the government of Chancellor Hermann Meuller on its policy toward the religious persecution in Russia.  On the same day, a bill to approve the Young Plan is approved by a conference committee, giving rise to optimism that it will be approved by the full legislature. 

And finally, reports surface that secret meetings have been held in Hamburg, Danzig and Vienna between representatives of the Third International and communist leaders from the United States.  These reports also speak of a worldwide demonstration of communists and the unemployed set for March 6. 

Madrid:  

Unrest over King Alfonso’s rule continues.  Demonstrations rise at a local university, while the cabinet says it supports the monarchy unswervingly.  The Minister of the Interior says the government will take “whatever energetic measures are necessary” against disturbances.

Oakland, USA:  

500 unemployed riot in front of the state employment agency, the sixth such riot in two weeks.  Five demonstrators and two police are injured.  

Thursday, 27 February 1930

Madrid:  

Demonstrations and riots against King Alfonso sweep parts of the country.  Thousands gather in the streets here and clash with police, who charge them with swords.  The disturbances follow a speech by former Prime Minister Jose Antonio Sanchez Guerra, the “grand old man” of Spanish politics, who, though a monarchist, declares that he is opposed to any further rule by King Alfonso.  “I will never again serve the present king,” he says.  New Prime Minister Damaso Berenguer announces that no further public political speeches will be permitted. 

London:  

Bishop Nickolai (or Nicholas), head of the Russian Orthodox Church in London, releases a letter which accuses the Soviet Union of torture and other atrocities against people of faith.  He claims a seminary leader in Voronezh was beaten with crucifixes and had molten lead poured down his throat.  An archbishop in Perm reportedly had his eyes gouged out and was dragged through the streets and killed, along with 40 other monks and priests.  “I would like this country to protest, and the whole civilized world to express its detestation of Russian persecution of Christianity.  Some of those prominently connected with the protest movement fear lest their religious protest should trespass on political issues.  To such, I say that no protest is likely to intensify trouble in Russia, and that the bolshevists can not do more in the way of atrocious persecution than they are now doing.”

Moscow:  

The chairman of the anti-religious committee of the communist party in Moscow issues an order for closings of churches, synagogues and mosques to speed up.  “Heretofore we have been extremely cautious about taking action on petitions for closing churches from workers and peasants.  But in view of the present agitation all over the world and in the soviets themselves, we can afford to be less timid.”    

Meanwhile, new reports of Jewish leaders arrested: the chief rabbi of Leningrad and another rabbi are reported held on charges of maintaining illegal connections abroad.  And synagogues in Vilna are reportedly being closed by soviet authorities.  

Chicago:  

After breaking up a communist meeting yesterday, authorities announce they have uncovered plans for a worldwide demonstration by communists set for March 6. 

Wednesday, 26 February 1930

United States:  

The unemployed, spurred on in many cases by communist organizers, riot or demonstrate in various parts of the country.  In Los Angeles, an estimated 3,000 people march on city hall, bearing banners reading “down with the police” and “forever the worker,” and wielding homemade tear gas bombs.  They are charged and dispersed by 300 police, and 27 are arrested.  In Chicago, several hundred people attending a communist meeting at Musicians’ Hall are encircled by police, allowed to give speeches and distribute communist literature, part of which attempts to incite a march of the unemployed -- then the police arrest every one of them.  A similar demonstration in Seattle is also broken up by police, with 11 arrested, and in Boston, where 9 are arrested after a strike called by the communist faction of the garment workers union.  The banners in Seattle read “down with capitalism” and “work for wages,” and handbills are signed by the Communist Party of the United States.  The handbills urge unemployed people to join a worldwide demonstration against capitalism.  Several hundred alleged communists also parade down Wall Street in New York. 

Elsewhere: 

Leningrad:  Police arrest Rabbi Lazerev, Chief Rabbi of Leningrad, and his colleague Rabbi Yasnogorowski, charging them with illegal connections abroad.
 

Berlin:  Paul Moldenhauer, Minister of Finance, proposes doubling the gasoline tax (called “benzine” in Germany) to 12 cents a gallon, and increasing the beer tax 75%, in hopes of raising the equivalent of US$110 million to help Germany’s budget deficit. 

Paris:  Andre Tardieu, former Prime Minister, agrees to return to the post after Camille Chautemps’ cabinet fell on its first vote in parliament.  

Tuesday, 25 February 1930

Bucharest:  In the ongoing crisis that includes reports of a Red Army buildup along the Romanian border, the government announces that the former chief of Romania’s secret police has been arrested on suspicion of spying for the Soviet Union.

New York:  2,000 communists hold a demonstration march in the garment district against police brutality; 400 police protect them on their route.  On Wall Street, 200 members of the Young Communists League also hold a demonstration.  Two are arrested.

Athens:  300 communists storm a jail, attempting to free 20 of their comrades.  

Minsk, Belorus (Belorussian S.S.R.):  Three of the rabbis arrested earlier this month are still held by soviet authorities, but the government won’t disclose their names, nor tell what it plans to do with them.

Cairo:  CopticOrthodox Pope John XIX, head of Coptic Christians in Egypt, joins the worldwide protest against religious persecution in Russia, and calls for prayers for the salvation of the country.

Monday, 24 February 1930

Russia:  The government continues its campaign against religion, closing churches, synagogues and mosques all over the country, including 13 mosques in one town alone.  Church leaders in Yugoslavia and Bulgaria add their voices to the global protest against Russia’s moves.

Sunday, 23 February 1930

Moscow:  

The soviet government, communist party, and their newspapers lash out at the rest of the world on the 12^th anniversary of the founding of the Red Army, and in the continuing upheaval surrounding the allegation that death penalties were meeted out to rabbis in Minsk.  Izvetia writes: “All the forces of reaction throughout the world are mobilized against the Soviet Union, which is going full speed ahead toward socialism.  The Pope, the Archbishop of Canterbury, the French police, the English die-hards, socialists, fascists, foreign counterfeiters of soviet money, and the German bourgeoisie have united into one holy union to launch new bandit attacks upon our country.  But the rulers of capitalistic Europe forget they are dancing the cancan on a barrel of powder.  We will remain firm and calm, watching this dance of dying capitalism.  In our country, all workers and peasants are convinced of the final results of the struggle between bolshevism and capitalism.  They know our government stands in defense of peace. They want peace themselves, but if the enemy directs his guns on the land of the proletarian dictatorship, each worker and peasant will consider it an honor to participate in the victorious marches of the Red Army in order to destroy the class enemy.”

 

Meanwhile the Jewish communist newspaper Oktiabre writes that rabbis in foreign countries are spies and therefore “these holy damagers should be carefully watched.”  Tass, the official government news agency, calls the report that rabbis in Minsk were going to be executed a “deliberate lie,” adding that “similar information emanating from Warsaw is false and part of the ring in the present anti-soviet campaign abroad.”  Supposedly, according to the soviet press, Jews themselves in Russia are marching in the streets, begging the authorities to close synagogues and convert them to secular uses. 

Nonetheless, U.S. Senator William Borah, who had written to Maxim Litvinov, Russian Acting Commissar of Foreign Affairs inquiring about the sentenced rabbis, says he has received word that the rabbis have been freed. 

In New York, speakers in churches and synagogues across the city attack Russia’s anti-religious persecution.  In Chicago, Jewish groups raise funds for the persecuted Jews in Russia.  And in Berlin, a mass meeting of Protestant churches is held to pray for the persecuted in Russia, and call on Christians worldwide to protest against it. 

Elsewhere:

Great Britain:  The worldwide depression deepens: a report says unemployment here now numbers 1.5 million.

Germany:  More bad economic news: unemployment among labor union members is now reported at 22%.  

Saturday, 22 February 1930

Berlin:  Police raid the headquarters of the communist central committee and discover plans for a nationwide march on Berlin.  Meanwhile, Austrian Chancellor Johann Schober, fresh off his visit to and treaty with Italy (see Feb. 7), visits Berlin, giving rise to rumors that he may be seeking a revival of the alliance between Germany, Austria and Italy from before the World War.  He is scheduled to stay for 3 days.  The city holds no official reception for him, however, due to its dire financial situation.

 

Genoa:  The government suppresses the newspaper Genoa Caffaro, which clears away competition for the fascist newspaper Genoa Journal. 

Moscow:  The Society of the Godless, a soviet atheist body, announces that 3,380 churches, synagogues and mosques have been closed in Russia since the communist revolution in 1917 -- 1,380 were closed last year alone.  

Friday, 21 February 1930

Bucharest:  

Prime Minister Iuliu Maniu consults with his military generals over the rumored Red Army buildup on the soviet side of the Bessarabian border.  British, French and Polish diplomats have reportedly assured Romania of their support in the event of a soviet attack on Romania. 

Chicago:  

Crying “Wages and work!”, 1,200 unemployed hold a demonstration at city hall that erupts into a riot.  Police charge the crowd, beating many, and arresting 12.  Trouble starts at a communist meeting where speakers circulate handbills calling on workers to “rally to the defense of their fatherland, the Soviet Union,” and inflame the crowd to hold a parade.  When the mob starts to file out, the police move in.  Still, some of the marchers make their way to city hall, where 150 police, some mounted, form a cordon around the building.  It is the third communist-led demonstration at city hall in 10 days.

Some of the handbills at the meeting speak of an “international demonstration against unemployment” day, scheduled for March 6.  Others read:  “Unemployment is increasing.  The crisis is sharpening.  Everywhere misery and suffering increases daily.  Heavy wage cuts go hand in hand with the increase in unemployment.”

Elsewhere:  

Weimar, Germany:  The nazi Minister of the Interior and Education of the state of Thuringia, Wilhelm Frick, announces he is preparing to order all schools in the state to pray daily for Germany’s liberation from the Treaty of Versailles. 

Minsk, Belorus (Belorussian S.S.R):  The Jewish leaders held by soviet authorities for alleged anti-government activities are allowed to receive visitors, who report that their execution now seems less likely.  Meanwhile in Moscow, the soviet government issues an official denial to a rumor that the rabbis had already been executed.  The government newspaper Izvestia says they have only been charged with counter-revolutionary activity, which reportedly stem from their appeal to Jews outside the Soviet Union for financial aid. 

Thursday, 20 February 1930

Bucharest: The nation is alarmed by rumors of soviet army forces concentrating near the Romanian border, across from the region of Bessarabia.  Bessarabia was part of the Russian Empire prior to 1918.

Minsk, Belorus (Belorussian Soviet Socialist Republic):  Reports say the Jewish leaders arrested for anti-government activities (see Feb. 15) are slated for execution.  

Wednesday, 19 February 1930

Berlin:  Hundreds of leading Germans issue a signed manifesto calling on the nation to reform its financial situation in order to meet the terms of the Young Plan.  The manifesto doesn’t specify what measures should be taken, but it stresses that no government money should be spent without an adequate return.  Signatories include Dr. Hjalmar Schacht, head of the Reichsbank, as well as leading industrial magnates and bankers, and a former chancellor.

London:  The naval conference adjourns for one week due to France’s political crisis, which has the French delegation at home.  

Tuesday, 18 February 1930

Moscow:  

The communist newspaper Izvestia publishes more defiance against world criticism of religious persecution in Russia.  The newspaper boasts of the truth of Russia’s “godless state,” and predicts that the Pope will one day be exhibited alongside the medicine man as an example of primitive human thinking.  Church closures, meanwhile, continue, and clerics are reported being turned out of their homes.  Izvestia likewise takes aim at British Foreign Minister Arthur Henderson, who recently said before Parliament that religious persecution in Russia was of great concern to the British government.  Henderson’s statements are a “bold violation of the recently concluded Anglo-Soviet agreement which obliges both sides to refrain from interfering in the affairs of the other.”

Germany:

Berlin:  Communists battle police in multiple skirmishes around the city after 250 police raid the headquarters of Rote Fahne, a communist newspaper.  Rote Fahne is suspected of distributing inflammatory pamphlets, and police report finding materials on starting communist cells within the police force.  Disturbances start as police leave the building – communists have filled the street outside, and when the police come out of the newspaper building, the melee ensues.

Meanwhile, the effects of the worldwide economic depression deepen: Paul Moldenhauer, Minister of Finance, proposes a new “national emergency sacrifice” tax on those with jobs, to benefit the unemployed.  The measure would require the approval of the Reichstag.

 

Dresden:  Also meanwhile, the government of the state of Saxony has to resign when the nazi, communist and nationalist members of its legislature join forces to vote a motion of no-confidence in the cabinet.  This was in retaliation for the cabinet’s earlier voicing approval for Germany approving the Young Plan.

Elsewhere:

Athens: Police arrest two communists and confiscate thousands of fliers urging workers in Macedonia to revolt on Feb. 26 or March 6.

Monday, 17 February 1930

Chita, Russia:  The local soviet closes every church, synagogue and shrine in this Siberian town after 10,000 people conduct a candlelight parade in sub-freezing weather to celebrate “the death of religion.”  The Godless One, official magazine of the Moscow Godless League, responds to the news by urging Moscow to follow suit quickly.

Paris:  The government of Prime Minister Andre Tardieu falls, only four months after taking office.  It was defeated in a no-confidence vote on a minor issue, by a margin of only 5 votes.  In addition to throwing French politics into turmoil, this also threatens the London Naval Conference, at which Tardieu had been leading France’s delegation.  

Sunday, 16 February 1930

Geneva:  A “tariff truce conference” opens under the auspices of the League of Nations, attended by 27 European nations.  Delegates will seek ways to reduce or otherwise minimize negative consequences of protective tariffs by individual nations, especially in view of the worldwide economic downturn.

London:  The London Naval Conference hits a delay, as French Prime Minister Andre Tardieu has to leave to deal with political issues at home, as well as a personal illness.  

Saturday, 15 February 1930

Russia: Persecution of religion, individual rights, and other freedoms continues.  The Moscow Soviet announces that 73 churches have been closed in that city alone over the past year.  It is common for the bells of these churches to be removed and melted down for industrial use, and the buildings converted to civic halls.  In Minsk, Belorus (Belorussian Soviet Socialist Republic), three Jewish rabbis are arrested for “conspiring” against the Soviet government.  All of this, soviet authorities say, is at the request of the working class.  Meanwhile, the government of the Soviet Union reports it has seized $50 million worth of property from private traders and others for payment of taxes owed. 

Madrid:  King Alfonso dissolves that National Assembly, which was formed by ex-dictator Miguel Primo de Rivera, a move viewed by many as a possible precursor to the restoration of some form of constitutional government.  

Friday, 14 February 1930

Libya:  The Italian air strafing and bombing of fleeing Libyan resistance fighters, and their civilian family members, continues along the Libya-Algeria border. 

Spain:  2,000 strikers march to a large factory in Madrid, seeking to incite the women workers there to join them.  They clash with police.  Unemployment has soared in Spain after the resignation of dictator Miguel Primo de Rivera and the discontinuation of his large public works programs.  Food riots and other unrest are leaving many injured and arrested throughout the country.  A mob in Barcelona attacks the headquarters of the Patriotic Union, which supported de Rivera. 

Philadelphia:  250 alleged communists storm city hall to protest rising unemployment.  Police break up the attack and arrest 17.  Unemployment in the city is said to be at 200,000.

Thursday, 13 February 1930: Soviet Press Fires Back at Churches

Libya:  

Italian air strafing and bombing of fleeing Libyan resistance fighters, and their civilian family members, continues along the Libya-Algeria border. 

Moscow:  

The Soviet press fires back at Russia’s religious critics around the world.  Pravda, the official communist newspaper, says of the Pope’s recent criticisms of Russia’s persecution of religion: “His appeal is really a call to the nations to sever relations with the Soviet Union, for the soviet never will allow foreigners to interfere in their religious policy.  So far, all evil yelping against the soviets lacked only the Holy Father’s sweet voice.  This representative of God on earth hitherto preferred to hold his peace; he thought the weakening Orthodox Church would clear the way for Rome.  Only now, when he has become convinced that the working class in Russia intends to wipe out all superstitions without distinction of creed, has his Holiness decided to take up the defense of persecuted religion.  This head of the Catholic Church certainly is less interested in the problems of the Orthodox Church, Judaism, or even Catholicism than the worldly goods it may involve.  This means indifference to the progress of our industrialization, to collectivization of our agriculture, which spoil the beauty sleep of the western birds of prey.  Like every other financier and exploiter of labor, the Pope is an enemy of the working class.  That is why he appeals to all countries to make religious freedom a condition of recognizing the soviets.” 

The Komsomolskal Pravda, newspaper of the Young Communists’ League, publishes a cartoon of a bloated Pope holding a swastika with a small cross nailed upon it. 

London:  

Religious persecution in soviet Russia dominates discussion in the House of Commons.  Foreign Secretary Arthur Henderson, answering questions from legislators, says “Reports as regards the religious situation in Russia are receiving serious consideration of his majesty’s government.  The house may rest assured that his majesty’s government will use its influence in support of the cause of religious liberty and freedom of religious practices.”  British Ambassador to Moscow, Sir Esmond Ovey, is ordered to investigate reports of religious persecution in Russia, and the House of Lords passes a resolution denouncing Russia for its anti-religious activity.  Joseph Hertz, Chief Rabbi of the United Kingdom, joins his voice with those of the Catholic and Anglican churches in protest of Soviet religious persecution. 

Meanwhile, at the naval conference, reliable reports surface that Japan has agreed to a 66-2/3 ratio of cruisers compared to the United States and Great Britain.  This would represent an increase from Japan’s current 60% ratio, but less than the 70% Japan came into the conference seeking.  “Japan attaches special importance to eight-inch gun cruisers, and desires to maintain here a minimum strength sufficient for national defense, taking into consideration the strengths held by the other powers,” says Raijiro Wakatsuki, of Japan’s delegation, in an official statement before the conference.  But he makes no mention of the 70% ratio, which observers thought he would.  Thus the belief that Japan has agreed to yield on its stated demands.  “This certainly leaves the door wide open for future discussion and is not in any sense the ultimatum which might be apprehended in some quarters,” says an unofficial spokesman for the U.S. delegation. 

Yet Japan is unwilling to make such an explicit statement officially, in part because Japanese elections are coming up next Tuesday, and the delegation is concerned that the present government would be perceived as having backed down in London.

Elsewhere:  

Paris:  Russia claims French police have arrested the Second Secretary of the Soviet Embassy in the case of the disappearance of Alexander Koutiepoff.  Paris police deny the charge. 

Offenbach, Germany:  Communists and nazis clash in a street battle.

Berlin:  More impact from the global economic depression: The government decides to appropriate no funds for completion of a second Deutschland-class heavy cruiser, sometimes called a “pocket battleship,” which would be one of six Germany is allowed under the Treaty of Versailles.  An estimated $14 million is needed to complete it.

 

Spain: The depression also adds to the new government’s difficulties in getting established after the resignation of dictator Miguel Primo de Rivera.  Parades and demonstrations by the unemployed have left Madrid and Barcelona under heavy police presence.

Italy:  Still more impact from the global economic depression: unemployment is reported over 462,000.

Wednesday, 12 February 1930: Anglicans, Catholics Protest Soviet Religious Persecution; "Two-Thirds Ratio" for Japan Emerges from London Conference

Libya:  

Italian occupying forces battling Libyan resistance fighters step up their tactics.  Rodolfo Graziani, colonial governor and head of Italian forces in Libya -- who is reportedly furious at his inability to obtain a decisive battle with the rebels -- orders his air force to fly missions along the Libyan-Algerian border, harassing the rebels as they try to evade the Italians by slipping across.  According to one source, the warplanes bomb and strafe “the herd of humanity, consisting of soldiers, but also a multitude of women and children.”  Rebel leader Abd en-Nebi Belcher, with those following him, manages to cross the border and surrenders to the French at Fort Charlet in the Algerian desert oasis of Djanet. 

Great Britain:  

The Church of England joins the Catholic Church’s condemnation of religious persecution in Russia.  In speeches given simultaneously to separate bodies, the Archbishop of Canterbury, head of the Anglican Church, and the Archbishop of York, head of the Catholic Church in England, jointly denounce anti-religious activity by the Soviet Russian government.

 

“I feel bound to refer to a matter lying heavy on our conscience.  It stirs the strongest feelings.  It is the cruel and persistent persecution of all forms of religion which the soviet government continues to wage,” the Archbishop of Canterbury says.  “It is a record almost unparalleled in history of religious persecutions.  It is not any one form of religion which has been assailed, but it is every belief in God.  The persecution has been accompanied by popular blasphemies and obscenities and ridicule, encouraged, and even ordered, by the government.  I hoped there would be some mitigation of this cruel and barbarous policy, but it seems to be continuing even more relentlessly than before.  As Christian men, we cannot keep silent.  The time has come when the church should express its corporate sympathy by a united act of intercession.”

The Archbishop of York says, “No words can be too strong to express the indignation and abhorrence with which we hear day by day the news of persecutions in Russia.  Anything possible to mitigate the horrors of that persecution and bring it to an end ought certainly to be done.  There is real danger, however, lest we relieve our own feelings at cost to the very people whom we wish to succor.  Nothing could be more disastrous than to give the persecuting government the smallest ground to appeal to patriotism in support of its own policy.” 

London:  Meanwhile, at the naval conference, the Japanese delegation finally responds officially to the U.S. proposal that was presented to them Feb. 6.  The U.S. proposal reportedly called for Japan to accept a 60% ratio of cruisers to the U.S. and Great Britain, consistent with the ratio Japan is permitted in other categories of warships.  Japan had come to the conference, however, seeking a 70% ratio.  Japan’s reply, however, is not made public.  

Germany:

Ruesselheim:  Six-hundred communist agitators take over the Opel automobile manufacturing plant briefly, forcing workers out.  Police quickly subdue the agitators and restore order, arresting two German legislators who were involved.

Berlin:  Debate on the Young Plan continues in the Reichstag, with Joseph Wirth, Minister of the Occupied Areas, recommending approval.  “We finally agreed to the Young Plan in the confident hope that in America too there would sometime be a race of men who would not merely want to squeeze out of Germany and Europe everything possible, but who would let ethically moral principles count.” 

Tuesday, 11 February 1930

Berlin:  The Reichstag debate on the Young Plan grows rowdy when Alfred Hugenberg, the nationalist politician who spearheaded the Liberty Law campaign opposing the plan, proclaims vociferously that it will bring about Germany’s ruin.

 

London:  At the naval conference, France and Japan oppose the call by the U.S. and Great Britain for abolition of submarines.  France says lesser naval powers cannot do without the submarine, noting that subs are no different from other warships as instruments of death.  Japan says the submarine has legitimate military uses for defense, reconnaissance and in warding enemies out of national waters.  But both nations say they support limitations on submarine warfare.  Japan is “emphatically opposed to unlimited submarine warfare as witnessed during the World War.”

Paris:  An anti-communist crowd marches on the Soviet Embassy in protest of the recent disappearance and alleged abduction of former White Russian General Alexander Koutiepoff.  Police break up the marchers before they reach the embassy.

Cleveland, USA:  More effects of the global economic depression: a crowd of 3,000 unemployed people storms city hall and clashes with police, demanding food and jobs, shouting “work and wages, or we’ll fight.”  There are conflicting reports of who starts the actual fighting, however.  Reporters say members of the crowd begin shouting, “The police are clubbing us” before any clubbing has in fact begun, and that this cry was in reality a signal for the rest of the crowd to try to break through the police line.  It is only then that the police begin the clubbing.  In any event, at one point as many as 30 rioters and six police are lying on the city hall steps, being trampled by the rest. 

Rome:  Still more effects of the global economic depression: two of Italy’s four largest banks -- Credito Italiano and Banca Nazionale di Credito -- merge after suffering huge losses. 

Monday, 10 February 1930

Trieste:  The offices of the Popolo di Trieste, the official fascist party newspaper, are bombed, wrecking the editorial and composing rooms.  Sixteen people are injured, four seriously.  

Sunday, 9 February, 1930

Berlin:  More bad economic news: a new report says Germany’s budget deficit so far this fiscal year is already 1.25 billion marks.  

Saturday, 8 February 1930

Vatican City:  Pope Pius XI, in an open letter to the Vicar-General of Rome, excoriates the government of soviet Russia for its “horrible and sacrilegious” persecution of religion there.  He announces that he will celebrate a “mass of atonement, propitiation and reparation” on March 19, to include prayer for the church in Russia, and invites all Christian nations of the world to do the same.  He chides the nations for not protesting Russia’s conduct enough.

Friday, 7 February 1930

Rome:  

Austria and Italy sign a Treaty of Friendship and Conciliation.  The countries fought on opposite sides in the World War, and the issue of former Austrian subjects in southern parts of the Tyrol region, who now live in Italy based on the redrawn post-war borders, has been a sore point between the two countries.

The pact calls for the creation of a conciliation committee to which differences between the two countries can be referred.  Austrian Chancellor Johan Schober gave Italian dictator Benito Mussolini the grand cordon with the gold star of merit to thank him for Italy’s friendship, including support for Austria at the recent Hague war debt reparation conference.

Observers, including the Austrian press, debate the significance of the treaty.  Some see it as part of a strategy by Mussolini to encircle Yugoslavia.  Others see it as a way for both Schober and Mussolini to resist “pan-Germans” in Austria, who see closer alliance with Germany as Austria’s future.

 

London:  

At the naval conference, the British delegation makes headlines the day after the U.S. delegation.  Prime Minister Gordon MacDonald joins in the U.S. call for the abolition of submarines; calls for a suspension of building battleships until 1936, with the ultimate hope that battleships may be abolished too; calls for tonnage limitations on cruisers; and more.  The conference, MacDonald says, “Ought not only reduce existing fleets and building programs, but put an end finally to competition in naval armaments and thus constitute an important step for ultimate elimination of the causes of war and the establishment of peace on an unassailable foundation.”  As with the U.S. announcement the day before, the Japanese delegation is not commenting on the British announcement.

Germany:   

Berlin:  President Paul von Hindenburg, the Reichstag, and the cabinet of Chancellor Hermann Mueller give their government entertainment appropriations to charity in hopes both of setting an example and leading the way in confronting Germany’s worsening economic situation.

Munich:  A newspaper publishes an article by an anonymous writer which states that the former Kaiser Wilhelm II expects to be recalled to rule.  The author, said to be a former nobleman and officer in the imperial German army, says he dined with Wilhelm in Doorn, Holland, where he lives.  “You are trained to obey and to serve, and what have you done with your new freedom?  What will you do when the president you have chosen for yourselves dies?  I will tell you.  The nation will call its Kaiser.”  

Thursday, 6 February 1930

London:  

At the naval conference, work of a mostly procedural nature has been going on.  But the U.S. delegation, headed by Secretary of State Henry Stimson, releases a statement which surprises some.  “At the opening of the conference, the United States delegation made no statement of its position or of the needs of its country beyond the historical fact of agreement in the principle for parity between Great Britain and the United States.  We are now in a position where we can go further.”  The statements goes on to say that, following discussions with the British and Japanese, the U.S. proposes “immediate parity” with the British in every class of warship, which would involve, in battleships, “the reduction in numbers on both sides to equalize our two fleets in 1931 instead of in 1942.  In destroyers and aircraft carriers we suggest equality of tonnage, and in submarines the lowest tonnage possible.  As is well known, we will gladly agree to the total abolition of submarines if it is possible to obtain the consent of all five powers to such a proposition . . . .” 

“ . . . Our suggestion to the Japanese delegation would produce an ‘overall’ relation satisfactory to us and, we hope, to them.  In conformity with our relations in the past, it is not based upon the same ratio in every class of ships.  We have not made proposals to the French and Italians, whose problems are not so directly related to ours that we feel it appropriate at this time to make suggestions to them.  A settlement of Italian and of French problems is essential, of course, to the agreement contemplated.”

 

The U.S. proposal to the Japanese delegation, the contents of which are not public, is nevertheless described by Japanese delegates as “drastic and far reaching.”  But other than that, the Japanese are not commenting. 

Elsewhere:

Hamburg:  Communist demonstrators attempt to storm the Mexican consulate, only days after Mexico broke off diplomatic relations with the Soviet Union.  The demonstrators break windows with rocks and throw bottles.  Police drive them away. 

Paris:  Reports surface that the French government is quietly conducting an investigation into whether the OGPU, the soviet secret police, is operating in France in violation of French sovereignty.  The investigation comes after the disappearance of White Russian General Alexander Koutiepoff, which was rumored to involve Russian agents.  

Tuesday, 4 February 1930

Ukraine: The government announces that in the past four months, 202 churches have been closed, converted into schools, hospitals, workmen’s clubs or headquarters of village soviets.  This brings the total number of churches closed in the last five years to more than 500.  

Monday, 3 February 1930

Russia:  The Soviet secret police, the OGPU, reportedly executes by firing squad, without trial, 300 former naval officers who served before the communist rise to power.

Paris:  In the continuing drama surrounding the disappearance of former White Russian General Alexander Koutiepoff, Russia’s Ambassador to France claims that White Russian exiles living in Paris are plotting a raid on his embassy to seek evidence of Russian involvement in the case (which Russia has officially denied).  He asks French authorities to increase the guard for the Russian embassy.  

Sunday, 2 February 1930

Austria:  Socialists and the nationalist heimwehr paramilitary clash in street battles in Eggenberg.  The heimwehr also holds a protest parade in Vienna against high taxes by the socialist-leaning municipal government.

Moscow:  The Council of People’s Commissars issues a decree authorizing local soviet authorities to use “drastic measures” to force Kulaks (wealthy peasants) off their lands, including exile and encouraging poor peasants to “hunt” the Kulaks.  

Paris:  In the case of the disappearance of Alexander Koutiepoff, the young German wife of a Russian employed in a factory near Paris is arrested, consistent with the suspicions rampant in Paris that Koutiepoff’s disappearance (and reported abduction) was the work of Soviet agents in France.

Saturday, 1 February 1930

Berlin:  More fighting between police and gatherings of communists and the unemployed, this time injuring seven police.  More fighting is also reported in Hamburg again, and this time in other cities around Germany.  Police in Berlin and Hamburg arrest communist leaders who they say were orchestrating the riots.