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.