Wednesday, 30 April 1930

Paris:  France expels 22 communist leaders as a precaution against May Day agitation tomorrow. 

Tuesday, 29 April 1930

Shanghai:  The nationalist government raids suspected communist bases in the foreign settlements, arresting 27 and seizing tens of thousands of pieces of communist propaganda, in advance of May Day.  Elsewhere, the government says its forces killed 900 bandits responsible for lawlessness in Hupeh. 

Monday, 28 April 1930

Vienna:  The Austrian government announces that 15,000 Austrian laborers who were to be employed by France to help build defensive fortifications there, cannot be used to work on fortifications directed toward Germany. 

Sunday, 27 April 1930

Rome:  Italy launches four new cruisers and a submarine in a festive event celebrating the country’s naval power.  Additionally, 90,000 members of fascist youth organizations are received into the Black Shirts, Mussolini’s fascist paramilitary, in ceremonies around the country.  They receive rifles to commemorate the occasion.

Madrid:  Melquiades Alvarez, former monarchist, criticizes King Alfonso in a speech, saying the king “forever” ignored his duties under the constitution of 1876 by allowing the dictatorship of Manuel Primo de Rivera.  Alvarez says a republic is now what Spain needs.

Berlin:  More bad economic news: the government announces that tax revenues were 70 million marks below budget for the fiscal year ended March 31. 

London:  Still more bad economic news: unemployment in Great Britain is higher than at any time in the last four years.

China: The nationalist government announces that martial law will be in effect for Shanghai May 1, in anticipation of communist unrest on May Day.  The government arrests 150 suspected communist agitators, detains 100 more, and displays weapons it says were planned for use in May Day uprisings.

Friday, 25 April 1930: Opposition to London Naval Treaty Rises in Japan

Tokyo: 

Opposition to Japan’s approval of the London Naval Treaty arises quickly.  Inukai Tsuyoshi, President of the Seiyukai opposition political party, attacks the treaty in the diet, claiming that because it was signed by a civilian government representative, it violates the Japanese constitution, which stipulates that the military be free from civilian control.  Foreign Minister Kijuro Shidehara, reviewing the treaty in the Diet, repeatedly has to refute the accusation that the Japanese delegation was forced to sign. 

Inukai Tsuyoshi

Paris:  Prime Minister Andre Tardieu proposes severe measures to prevent communist demonstrations on May Day, May 1. 

Halle, Germany:  A clash between nazis and communists after a nazi meeting results in injuries to 19 nazis. 

Tuesday, 22 April 1930: London Naval Conference Ends with Incomplete Results

London: 

The London Naval Treaty – focal point of the London Naval Conference which has been going on for the past two months -- is signed by the five participating nations: Japan, the United States, Great Britain, France and Italy.  The treaty marks a partial victory for diplomacy: all five nations agree to suspend expansion of their battleship fleets until 1936.  However, only three of the countries – Japan, the U.S., and U.K. – agree to limitations on their fleet sizes.  France and Italy could never resolve their differences with each other nor the rest of the participants, and so did not agree to fleet size limitations.  Perhaps indicative of the anticlimactic ending after 13 weeks of meetings, the U.S. delegation is already at the docks ready to board their ship home the same day of the signing. 

British Prime Minister Ramsay MacDonald says, “We have now gone as far as we can at present.  Compared with Washington and Geneva [earlier conferences], we have progressed far.  Compared with our desires, we have fallen short.  We part today in a spirit of active good will, prepared to take every means which offers itself to secure a five-power agreement on all points.  Our work has been but partly done, but all good work must be done in stages.”

London Naval Conference delegates

Cettinje, Yugoslavia:  A communist agitator guns down four people, including the chief of the gendarmes, and wounds three others, before being killed by police. 

Sunday, 20 April 1930

Leipzig, Germany: 

A gathering of 30,000 young communists observing “Red Youth Day” turns violent when fighting breaks out as police attempt to cordon off side streets leading away from the plaza where the gathering is being held.  Three are killed, two of them police. 

Madrid: 

More than 25,000 supporters of the monarchy jam the new bull ring here to show their support for King Alfonso XIII.  Streets around the arena are draped with banners reading, “Long Live the King,” and “Long Live Spain.”  Speakers say the king has been unfairly attacked by supporters of a constitutional republic, and that the majority of Spaniards want the monarchy to continue.  The king was not present, spending Holy Week in Seville. 

Soviet Union:

Kharkov, Ukraine:  29 people are sentenced to prison terms totaling 173 years for allegedly trying to restore a “capitalistic” system in Ukraine.  Among those being sent to prison are the former President of the Ukrainian Academy of Sciences, the former Ukrainian Prime Minister and Foreign Minister.

Moscow:  The 200 or so remaining Orthodox churches here are jammed on Easter Sunday, despite efforts by the Atheist League to detract from it.  In an attempt to draw people away from church, all theaters in the city are opened at midnight and shows are run continuously through the day, and military bands play at public squares and other gathering places.  However, as part of its “slowdown” on the atheization of the country, the government does forbid citizens from molesting worshipers in churches, or on their way to and from them. 

China:

In the civil war, skirmishes are reported between nationalist government forces and northern rebels along railroads around the city of Kweiteh. 

Friday, 18 April 1930

Zurich:  Political exiles from fascist Italy report that political prisoners of dictator Benito Mussolini’s government, being held in prisons on the Lipari Islands in the Mediterranean, are being killed by their guards – two, at least, are reported dead.

Berlin:  More bad economic news: reports measuring economic activity such as railway car loadings of coal and other heavy goods are all down from the same time last year. 

Bydgoszcz, Poland:  Nine members of the Deutschtumbund, a German organization in the areas of Poland that were taken from Germany after the World War, are sentenced to prison for sabotaging Polish administrative decisions and spying.

Monday, 14 April 1930

Germany: 

Wilhelm Frick, nazi Minister of the Interior and Education in the state of Thuringia, issues an order that will revoke the licenses of entertainment establishments that present black performers or their music.  Frick says he is acting to save Germany from “negro culture,” which he says is corrupting morals in the country.

Berlin:  New Chancellor Heinrich Bruening’s package of financial reform bills (mostly taxes) and agrarian relief passes the Reichstag by slim margins – in the case of the budget bill, by just four votes.  Bruening’s authority to dissolve the Reichstag, granted him by President Paul von Hindenburg, again looms large over the proceedings, with political parties sending cars and in some cases even planes out to bring legislators in for the vote, rather than face elections for a new parliament.  The measures implement new taxes on tobacco, sugar, beer and mineral water. 

Elsewhere:

Paris:  Two fascists are shot to death in the street by communists in revenge for recent arrests of communists in France.

New York: The Rand School of Social Science, a socialist institution, releases its American Labor Year Book for 1930, which states that the growing worldwide unemployment problem caused by the Great Depression is worst in Russia.

Sunday, 13 April 1930

Germany:

Berlin:  Nazis paint “Death to Young” and swastikas on three portals of the Reichstag building in protest of the Young Plan. 

Magdeburg:  Several are injured in a street battle between communists and nazis.

Saturday, 12 April 1930

Germany:

Berlin:  Fritz Hampel, an editor at the communist newspaper Rote Fahne (Red Flag), is sentenced to two years in prison on charges of high treason for articles and cartoons considered inflammatory.

Breslau:  Nazis and laborers clash in a streetfight that broke out as the nazis were holding a meeting.  Thirty are injured.

Friday, 11 April 1930

Berlin:  Germany already faces another financial crisis.  New Reichsbank head Hans Luther (a former chancellor of Germany) says the nation’s banks need an immediate infusion of government backing for their loans, or else credit in the country will dry up next week. 

Thursday, 10 April 1930

London: 

At the London Naval Conference, the U.S. delegation comes up with a scheme that will allow all five participants to sign something, thus preventing a complete conference failure, although most of what France and Italy will sign is of less consequence.  The idea is to break the treaty into three parts.  The first calls for a temporary suspension of battleship building.  The second will deal with the “humanization” of submarine warfare.  France and Italy will reportedly sign those two.  The third part will be trilateral between the U.S., Great Britain and Japan, governing broader naval quotas. 

Berlin: 

The new cabinet of Heinrich Bruening is already finding the going rough.  One economic measure after another is defeated in committee: yesterday it was the cabinet’s proposal to raise the beer tax 75%; today it is plans for funding unemployment insurance.  President Paul von Hindenburg has called another meeting of all political party leaders to try to find a solution.  If he doesn’t, rumors are he will consider again his earlier threat to dissolve the Reichstag and have Bruening run the country by the constitution’s emergency provisions. 

Elsewhere:

Washington:  More bad economic news: farm wages are the lowest since the government started collecting figures in 1923. 

Belgrade:  13 people are sentenced to prison on charges of belonging to a communist organization. 

Tuesday, 8 April 1930

Berlin:  New Chancellor Heinrich Bruening introduces plans to try to solve Germany’s financial crisis by raising duties on a wide range of agricultural products.  Once finalized, the measures will be introduced in the Reichstag.

Washington:  More economic bad news: the government announces that exports to Europe are down $30 million from 1929 levels, and imports from Europe down nearly $20 million.

Sunday, 6 April 1930

Berlin:  More bad economic news: a report says prices for goods in Germany are down 9% from a year ago, signaling weak demand.

Mexico: Police in the state of Vera Cruz arrest communists in four cities whom they say were planning a revolt.

Saturday, 5 April 1930

Sofia:  Police arrest 50 communists on charges of seditious activity.

China:  In the resumed civil war, nationalist government forces capture the city of Yuanchow from rebellious northern forces. 

Friday, 4 April 1930: Zhang Xueliang Supports Chiang's Chinese Government

Shanghai:  The Nanking State Council, a body of Chiang Kai-shek’s nationalist government, approves a mandate for “the arrest and subjugation” of the leaders of the northern revolt (see Apr. 1) – tantamount to a declaration of war.  In a surprise move, however, warlord Zhang Xueliang, de facto ruler of Manchuria, is reported to have thrown his support behind the nationalist government.  He orders a squadron of gunboats to Shantung province and his troops to the Great Wall in support of Chiang’s government.  

Madrid:  More impact from the worldwide economic depression: Spain’s Finance Minister says the country will incur a deficit of the equivalent of US$23 million for 1930.

Washington:  Still more impact from the depression: President Herbert Hoover signs a $375 million road spending bill, intended to stimulate the economy.

Thursday, 3 April 1930

Berlin: 

Heinrich Bruening’s new cabinet wins its first vote of confidence from the Reichstag, with the deciding votes ironically being cast by the party of nationalist leader Alfred Hugenberg.  The vote is 252-187, with socialists, communists and nazis voting against.  Hugenberg had threatened to defeat the new government, but after Bruening outlines his cabinet’s agriculture policies, which are under the care of Martin Schiele from Hugenberg’s National People’s Party, Hugenberg evidently changes his mind, and his party votes in favor of Bruening.  Hugenberg still says his party may desert the government and bring about its downfall, however, at any time it feels so inclined.

Moscow: 

Rabbi Lazarev, Chief Rabbi of Leningrad, and 15 others, are sentenced to 10 years in a concentration camp for alleged anti-soviet activity. 

London: 

At the London Naval Conference, the delegates from the United States, Great Britain and Japan officially agree to a three-way naval treaty which is intended to reduce the navies of all three, with the U.S. and British delegations accepting certain reservations from Japan.  U.S. Senator David A. Reed, a U.S. delegate who did most of the negotiating with Japan, says, “I cannot impress on you too strongly the fine spirit with which the Japanese and British have met us.  There was no disposition to quibble on the part of any one of the three delegations.  All three delegations have been frank and fair.  I cannot imagine a more pleasant negotiation than this has been.  The result is not a victory for anyone, but an honorable and reasonable settlement between the three powers.” 

Wednesday, 2 April 1930

Tokyo:  Admiral Kato Kanji, Chief of the Naval General Staff, lodges an official protest against Japan’s approval of the London Naval Treaty with Emperor Hirohito.

Budapest:  58 people are arrested as a result of a riot of the unemployed.

Istanbul:  Turkish police announce they have uncovered a spy plot infiltrating both military and government circles, and thought to be soviet in origin. 

Hamburg:  A powerful bomb explodes in a crowded department store, blowing out windows and crumbling walls.  No information yet on who did it or why. 

Tuesday, 1 April 1930: Japan Announces it will Accept the Two-Thirds Ratio

Tokyo: 

The government of Prime Minister Osachi Hamaguchi announces that it will accept the terms of the London Naval Treaty being proposed by the United States and Great Britain, and instructs its delegates to the London Naval Conference to sign it.  This will preserve the requirement that Japan have a smaller ratio of capital ships compared to the U.S. and U.K. – a sore point among Japanese military leaders (although the ratio does improve).  The last treaty (with the 60% ratio) created a sharp rift in the Japanese navy between pro-treaty factions and nationalist admirals who wanted full parity with the other powers.  Many in Japan – in the military, the government and the public – view the reduced ratio as a national insult. 

Berlin: 

President Paul von Hindenburg gives Heinrich Bruening, his candidate to become chancellor of a new government, permission to dissolve the Reichstag and run the country under Article 48 -- the “emergency provision” -- of the German constitution, if the Reichstag doesn’t give Bruening a vote of confidence.  Armed with this, Bruening gives a curt speech in the Reichstag, telling the delegates the country needs work, not words, and action, not argument, if Germany is to dig through its financial issues.  Nonetheless, his speech is interrupted often by jeering from the communist delegates.

Elsewhere:

London:  More evidence of the Depression: the government announces that its plans to help the nation’s unemployed will cost the equivalent of US$350 million.

Washington:  More bad economic news:  William Green, President of the American Federation of Labor, testifies before Congress that 3.7 million are out of work. 

China:  Civil war resumes in China’s northern territories.  It has been brewing for weeks.  The governor of Shansi province has allied himself with a general who was a leader in Chiang Kai-shek’s nationalist army until he led a rebellion against Chiang late last year.  The two have moved their forces into Kaifeng, capital of Honan province, and into northern Shantung province, in a bid to challenge Chiang.  So far they are unopposed by government troops in the area – many of which have reportedly joined their rebellion.