Friday, 7 March 1930

Berlin:  

Dr. Hjalmar Schacht resigns unexpectedly as Reichsbank President, citing again his opposition to the Young Plan – which he now calls merely a distortion of the original.  “Please don’t call it the Young Plan.  Sanctions, moral discriminations and even the taking of our property – as Snowden [Philip Snowden, British Chancellor of the Exchequer], France, Poland, New Zealand, Canada and Australia are doing – have nothing in common with the Young Plan as conceived in Paris.  I am for the Young Plan, especially in the Young spirit; I am even now willing to accept the Young Plan in the Young spirit.  What is now before the Reichstag I call the Hague protocol, and as to what I think of Germany’s future under it . . . .  Well, I don’t say anything.”

Schacht’s antagonism, directed both at Germany’s financial situation and the revisions to the Young Plan, had made headlines throughout Europe.  But his resignation catches official circles by surprise – it lends him a kind of moral high ground, some say, in that he is willing to give up a powerful and high-paying position over principles.  But some officials worry that Schacht is simply planning to launch an attack on the cabinet of Chancellor Hermann Mueller from the outside, possibly bringing down his government. 

The Reichstag bills to approve the Young Plan have been tied up in negotiations for days, as political parties who’s support for the plan will be needed use that in turn as leverage to negotiate for things they want – in particular, for or against a tax increase on individuals to help pay the government’s bills. 

Meanwhile, more communists riot in East Berlin, with two police and a civilian shot.  It starts with a demonstration of several hundred.  When police attempt to break it up, someone opens fire. 

Moscow:  

The Commissariat of Health issues a rule that priests and other “former people” of the old Russian monarchy are not to be given beds in hospitals until all the treatment needs of the “proletarians” have been met.  Since non-proletarians are already prohibited from receiving medical care at public clinics – whose physicians are the ones referring patients to hospitals – this all but excludes these “former people” from the healthcare system (although they still may receive private medical care in their homes).