Tuesday, May 13, 1930

London:  The worldwide economic depression worsens: Britain reports that unemployment has soared to its highest level in eight years – 1.7 million are out of work.

Monday, May 12, 1930

Vienna:  Prince Oscar von Hohenzollern, son of the former Kaiser of Germany, visits Austria’s nationalist Heimwehr paramilitary with 30 members of Germany’s Stahlhelm (also a nationalist paramilitary), of which Prince Oscar is a member.  The timing couldn’t be worse for Austrian Chancellor Johan Schober, trying to disarm such groups as he promised the League of Nations.  In the face of Schober’s intentions, the Heimwehr has announced it intends to hold parades every Sunday through the summer.

Tokyo:  Japan confirms it is sending 25 (not 30) military officers as trainers for China’s nationalist government military.  Chinese communists accuse Japan of meddling in China’s internal affairs.  Meanwhile, a group of reserve naval officers calls on Naval Minister Takarabe Takeshi to resign for the “unpardonable” act of agreeing to the London Naval Treaty.

Sunday, May 11, 1930

Bucharest:  The former chief of Romanian police is sentenced to 10 years in prison for communist spying; his wife and five aides get five years each.

Saturday, May 10, 1930

Tokyo:  Japan and China reportedly reach an agreement whereby 30 Japanese military officers will serve as instructors and organizers for the nationalist government’s forces in their civil war with communist rebels.  This comes as something of a surprise; many Chinese still bitterly resent the Japanese military for the Jinan Incident of May 1928, in which Japanese forces clashed with nationalist government troops on Chinese soil, causing thousands of casualties.

Friday, May 9, 1930

Berlin:  The government’s completed budget for the fiscal year calls for a deficit of 1.65 billion marks, much of it carried over from prior year.  Calls for fiscal responsibility grow louder.

Thursday, May 8, 1930

Spain:  The nation is abuzz with rumors that a group of military officers plans a coup to return a dictatorship, but nothing materializes other than clashes between students and police in Saragossa.

Washington:  More evidence of the growing economic depression: the government reports that U.S. foreign trade fell by $500 million compared to the same quarter prior year. 

Wednesday, May 7, 1930

Berlin:  Germany files a complaint with Poland, claiming that Polish planes are flying over German airspace, in particular over strategically sensitive areas.  

Tuesday, May 6, 1930

Berlin:  A police lieutenant is injured and 22 communists arrested during demonstrations.

Monday, May 5, 1930

Tokyo:  Shinya Uchida, former Vice Minister of the Navy and a bitter opponent of the London Naval Treaty, sends a letter to the War Minister, Gen. Issei Ugaki, trying to get him involved in opposing it too. 

Madrid:  More violence by university students, this time leaving two dead, which prompts Prime Minister Damaso Berenguer to issue a statement saying his government will tolerate no more demonstrations.  Both of the dead are workers, killed by gunfire.  40 are injured, many by thrown rocks.  

Sunday, May 4, 1930

Madrid:  Students shouting “Viva el rey!” enter a theater where Republicans have gathered and start hitting the meeting’s leaders over the head with sticks, sparking a riot.  From there, the fighting spreads outside, and eventually to the street in front of a hotel where the meeting’s speaker is staying.  Several are injured and arrested.

Rome:  Benito Mussolini reviews 25,000 fascist youth who have been participating in a camp.  Mussolini praises their morale and discipline.

Austria:  Chancellor Johann Schober, who had just promised the League of Nations he would disarm the country’s militarized political factions as a condition for receiving financing to improve Austria’s infrastructure, returns home to find a 10,000-man march being held by the nationalist Heimwehr paramilitary in Vienna, and 16,000 uniformed socialists gathering in St. Polten.  Police with machine guns keep the peace.

Washington:  More than 1,000 economists sign a letter to President Herbert Hoover, asking him to veto the Smoot-Hawley tariff bill pending in Congress.  The bill would raise tariffs on more than 20,000 import products to record levels, in hopes of protecting domestic producers during the economic depression.  The economists say it will have the opposite effect, provoking reprisal tariffs from other countries and worsening the depression.

Manchuria:  Warlord Zhang Xueliang, de facto ruler of Manchuria, is reportedly acquiring a small “air force” of bombers and scout planes after suffering under Russia’s air superiority during the Soviet incursion into Manchuria (see Nov. 17, 1929).  

Saturday, May 3, 1930

Madrid:  Students calling for a republic clash with police again, and call for a 24-hour strike.

Friday, May 2, 1930

Prague:  Communists and socialists in parliament come to blows for the second day in a row during debate of routine business.

Berlin:  The cabinet of Chancellor Heinrich Bruening announces its budget for the fiscal year, which amounts to US$84 million more than last year, which already carried a US$75 million deficit.  The cabinet’s opponents are increasing their complaints that the government must get its financial house in order.

Tokyo: Rumors swirl that Kanja Kato, Navy Chief of Staff, will resign in protest of Japan’s acceptance of the London Naval Treaty. 

Harbin, Manchuria:  A mob of Chinese and Korean “radicals” attacks the Japanese consulate here.  Police arrest 32. 

Thursday, May 1, 1930: May Day Passes with Relative Calm

May Day passes relatively calmly in most of the world.  Customarily a major event for labor and communists, the day passes with less unrest than many authorities and police had feared.  Berlin is the exception: riots and shooting mar the occasion, with one killed and 200 arrested.  In Paris, police arrest more than 3,200 demonstrators or potential troublemakers, raiding meetings of communist and labor groups to stop problems before they start, and there isn’t even much work stoppage.  Factories are running at 80%, and utilities are normal.

In New York, 1/3 of the city’s police force – 5,000 men – are on duty.  More than 100,000 people participate in two demonstrations – one pro-American, the other pro-Soviet, but both are relatively peaceful.  50 are arrested for disorderly conduct, mostly keeping kids out of school to participate in the demonstrations.  10,000 war veterans also demonstrate against communism.

Moscow, of course, sees its usual parades and demonstrations.  People carry signs and banners ridiculing religion, British imperialism in India, and the League of Nations.  Loudspeakers are set up over the Shrine of the Iberian Virgin at the entrance to Red Square, and blare revolutionary speeches all day.

Madrid:  A crowd of 10,000 cheers a speech by Miguel Unamuno, one of Spain’s leading philosophers, who ardently advocates a republic.  At one point the crowd begins shouting, “Death to the king!”  Police charge with swords drawn, injuring 50.  Nevertheless, Premier Gen. Damaso Berenguer says he doesn’t take the “shouting of students” too seriously, and says the monarchy will remain, but elections will be held.

Warsaw:  Communists and the unemployed clash with police using guns and rocks, injuring six.  Two are arrested. 

Tokyo:  In a press interview, Shoza Yabuki, Vice Minister of the Navy, appeals to “everyone who believes in party government” to support Japan’s approval of the London Naval Treaty. 

London:  The worldwide economic depression deepens: Margaret Bondfield, Minister of Labor, tells the House of Commons that unemployment has increased more than 500,000 in a year.