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.”
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