Monday, June 30, 1930: French Troops Evacuate the Rhineland

Mainz, Germany:  “Amid tremendous outbursts of enthusiasm of the populace, the last hobnailed boot of foreign troops vanished Monday from German soil.”  So leads the Universal Press article describing the scene in Mainz, throughout the Rhineland, and over much of Germany, as the last French forces occupying German soil after the World War depart.  At 11:15 a.m., the French flag is hauled down from the old Mainz castle, and the last several hundred French soldiers march to the train station to depart.  Some Germans cheer.  But at the train station, a crowd hisses and boos the departing troops.

The German government issues a statement tonight which reads in part: “There are still heavy clouds overhanging the political and economic life of our people.  The present day, however, gives reason for hope in the future.”  President Paul von Hindenburg refers to the occupation as “arbitrary foreign rule” in his comments.

Church bells are rung for an hour all over Germany, and public offices are closed.  At nightfall, bonfires are lit on the banks of the Rhine, and people celebrate into the night.

Paris:  The French press, on the other hand, worries that in the midst of their celebrations (and boos), Germans have not appreciated the fact that France is withdrawing its troops earlier than originally agreed.  Some even predict that Germany’s fascists – the nazis of Adolf Hitler – will grow in influence without a French presence.  

Matamoros, Mexico:  Twenty people are killed and eight more wounded when a mob of communists battles police in this central Mexican city.  The communists had sought permission for a march of protest against the Mexican government’s arrest of communists in other parts of the country.  When they were refused, they marched anyway.  Press reports say the communists opened fire on police.

Bilboa, Spain:  Communists are also implicated in two bomb blasts that destroy houses under construction here.  No one is injured.  Police, who seize two alleged perpetrators after a gun battle, say the bombs were an attempt to incite a general strike.

Sunday, June 29, 1930

Germany:  The country is abuzz on the eve of the evacuation of the final French troops from the Rhineland.  Celebrations are planned at midnight, and workers are erecting flagpoles to fly the German flag over the Rhineland for the first time in 12 years.

China:  In the civil war, Manchurian warlord Zhang Xueliang reportedly offers again to serve as mediator between the nationalist government and northern rebels.  

Saturday, June 28, 1930

Rome:  Citing French fortifications in the Alps along the Italian border, Italy announces it will increase its military budget by US$26 million.

Berlin:  Chancellor Heinrich Bruening, in a speech before the Reichstrat, announces that he significantly underestimated the severity of Germany’s financial situation, and says drastic changes, including all of the new taxes he’s been proposing, must be implemented immediately if the country is get back on sound financial footing. 

New York:  A mob of 1,000 communists attempts to storm the British Consulate to protest British rule in India.  Five police are injured.

Friday, June 27, 1930

Berlin:  Minister of Labor Adam Stegerwald, in a speech to the Reichstag, says a general price decrease must be implemented if Germany is to dig out of its financial crisis.  He also suggests the government is considering a “national sacrifice” tax to raise US$200 million.  

Thursday, June 26, 1930: French Troops Evacuate The Palatinate

Speyer, Germany:  French troops depart The Palatinate, a region of about 2,100 square miles in southwestern Germany that has been occupied since the World War.  Residents celebrate by removing French-language street signs.  By prior agreement, all French troops will be out of the Rhineland by June 30.

Moscow:  The communist party’s annual convention opens at the Moscow Grand Opera House with speeches urging communists in the United States to agitate for revolution.

Washington:  Secretary of Commerce Robert P. Lamont releases census figures which indicate unemployment is just under 2.3 million, better than widely thought.  William Green, President of the American Federation of Labor, says unemployment is 3.6 million.

Berlin:  Herman Dietrich is appointed Finance Minister to replace Paul Moldenhauer, who resigned June 18.  Moldenhauer’s financial reform proposals proved unpopular.  Dietrich was Minister of Economics in Chancellor Heinrich Bruening’s cabinet.  Political observers say Dietrich’s appointment is Bruening’s last chance to save his government.

Budapest:  A group of 30 communists attacks the Polish Embassy with stones, smashing windows and shouting, “Down with Polish dictatorship!”  This after Poland executed a group of communists at Lwow (Lviv).  Police disperse the mob and arrest some.

Wednesday, June 25, 1930

Tokyo:  The All-Japan Students Association holds a protest meeting against the London Naval Treaty at the Kanda Theater.  Police break up the meeting halfway through.

Monday, June 23, 1930

Budapest:  A mass trial of more than 100 communists begins.  They are charged with revolutionary conspiracy against the state.

Sunday, June 22, 1930: Saxony Elections Yield Big Gains for the Nazis

Dresden:  Election results for the landtag (parliament) of the state of Saxony show big gains for the National Socialist German Workers’ Party – nazis.  They pulled a nearly three-fold increase, from 5% in the 1929 elections to 14.4% today.  This will increase their seats in the landtag from 5 to 14, making them the second-largest party in the body.  The Social Democratic Party is still the largest, holding roughly steady at 33% of the popular vote and 32 seats.  The communists gained slightly, from 12.8% of the vote in 1929 to 13.6% today, picking up one seat to 13. 

Moscow:  The government announces it will recall Rabbi Lavarev, Chief Rabbi of Leningrad, from Siberian exile, but restrict his movements upon his return home.

Saturday, June 21, 1930

Berlin:  In the crisis following the resignation of Finance Minister Paul Moldenhauer, reports say that some of the political parties represented in Chancellor Heinrich Bruening’s cabinet want to wait for the results from the landtag (parliament) elections in the German state of Saxony before deciding on a new finance minister.  They want to see which direction the winds of public opinion are blowing.  Those elections are set for tomorrow.

New York:  More signs of the economic depression -- unemployment in the city is estimated at 300,000.

Friday, June 20, 1930

Berlin:  The resignation of Finance Minister Paul Moldenhauer is causing the first crisis for Chancellor Heinrich Bruening’s cabinet, which can’t agree on who should replace him.  Bruening still maintains that an emergency tax is the only solution to Germany’s financial situation, but the unpopularity of this idea is partly what caused Moldenhauer to resign.

Paris:  More bad economic news -- French foreign trade shows a deficit of 3.3 billion francs for the first five months of the fiscal year.  Yet on the same day, sources say Prime Minister Andre Tardieu will propose a 1 billion franc increase in defense spending, saying the country’s defense funds have become depleted.

Thursday, June 19, 1930

Prostken, East Prussia:  Another shooting incident between German and Polish border officials leaves a Polish customs officer dead.  

Wednesday, June 18, 1930: European Backlash to Smoot-Hawley

London:  Protest and complaint come fast and fierce to the U.S. Smoot-Hawley tariff act.  Critics say it will jeopardize Britain’s war debt repayments to the U.S., and demand that Great Britain raise tariffs to protect her industries in turn.

Paris:  Newspapers and politicians of all stripes denounce the U.S. tariff act.  The Minister of Commerce calls it a “false remedy” for the worldwide economic depression.  French economists are calling for a European “tariff union” to offset the U.S. measure. 

Madrid:  The government orders a committee to study the effects of the U.S. tariff.  Critics are calling for Spain to break its current trade agreement with the U.S. in retaliation.

Berlin:  Finance Minister Paul Moldenhauer is reportedly resigning in the face of widespread disfavor for his financial reform measures, such as new taxes on employees and bachelors.  The cabinet of Chancellor Heinrich Bruening meets in special session tonight to discuss the matter.

Tuesday, June 17, 1930: U.S. Enacts the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act

Washington:  President Herbert Hoover signs the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act, putting in force immediately a wide range of tariff increases on thousands of imported products.  The law changes the tariff rates on 1,122 products entering the United States, raising them in 887 cases.  Economic experts have warned that the act will only exacerbate the depression, and several U.S. trading partners have said they will retaliate.

Helsinki:  Communist agitation has reached such heights that citizens are taking matters into their own hands.  In northern Finland, mobs have begun driving communists toward the Russian border to rid their communities of their troublemaking.  In the capital, civic organizations have petitioned the government to suppress the communist party and its newspapers.  Communist organizations in Helsinki, Ulenborg and Vaza have ceased activities in the face of the opposition.

Monday, June 16, 1930

Berlin:  Four police are injured in a clash with demonstrating communists.

Sunday, June 15, 1930

Berlin:  Having been banned from wearing their uniforms (see June 12), nazis hold a march shirtless. 

Meanwhile, S. Parker Gilbert, Agent General for Reparations under the now-expiring Dawes Plan (predecessor of the Young Plan), makes his final report on Germany’s financial condition.  He sounds repeated warnings that Germany needs “immediate and radical” budgetary reform if the nation is to meet its obligations and gets its financial house in order.  Tax revenues have improved “to an extent far exceeding expectations of experts,” Gilbert says.  The main problem: the government spends too much.  “There is evidence of unwillingness on the part of both government and parliament squarely and promptly to face the situation by taking the necessary steps either to control expenditures or to provide adequate resources to cover them.”

Gilbert’s report further complains that the German government’s budget presentations are “ideally calculated to obscure the real position.”  Yet Gilbert says social expenditures have risen 458% over the past five years, from 259 million marks to 1.345 billion, as the nation has become more deeply involved in subsidizing social insurance funds.  Germany’s public debt increased 11% in the last year alone, to 10.353 billion marks.  Germany’s gross deficit for the 1929-30 budget of about 1.075 billion marks is the worst in years.

“When the experts of the Dawes Committee were called together at the beginning of 1924, Germany was on the point of collapse after an unprecedented period of inflation,” Gilbert’s report says.  “Germany’s credit has been re-established both at home and abroad, her industries have been reorganized and her productive capacity has been restored, and the general standard of living has greatly improved.  The Dawes Plan, as was its object, also cleared the way for complete and final settlement of the reparations problem, which is embodied in the Young Plan and the Hague agreements of Jan. 20, 1930.  The new plan is an act of confidence in the good faith and financial integrity of Germany, and Germany now has a definite task to perform on her own responsibility, without foreign supervision and without the transfer protection provided by the Dawes Plan.”

S. Parker Gilbert

Leipzig:  Armed nazis and communists clash in Eythra, a suburb, killing 1 and injuring 12. 

Vienna:  Waldemar Pabst, the German leader of Austria’s fascist Heimwehr paramilitary who faces deportation for revolutionary activities, loses his appeal to stay in the country and leaves on a plane for Venice. 

Meanwhile, in economic news, reports have unemployment in Austria 20% higher than a year ago.  Export trade has declined significantly. 

Washington:  President Herbert Hoover announces, as expected, that he will sign the tariff bill known as the Smoot-Hawley Act that has been making its way through Congress.  Representatives of Spain, France and Great Britain have all warned that if Hoover signs the bill into law, it will unleash retaliatory tariffs from their countries. 

China:  Manchurian warlord Zhang Xueliang has reportedly told northern rebel forces he will join the fighting against them unless they accept his offer to mediate between them and nationalist government head Chiang Kai-shek (see March 21).

Saturday, June 14, 1930: Pabst Arrested; Prince Wilhelm Joins the Nazis

Vienna:  Fresh off his parliamentary victory to disarm Austria’s paramilitaries, Chancellor Johann Schober orders the arrest of Waldemar Pabst, a German national who has been in Austria for several years helping lead the fascist Heimwehr paramilitary.  Pabst is charged with involvement in revolutionary activities; the government will begin expulsion proceedings against him immediately.  In an ironic twist, should Pabst be ordered expelled from Austria (which is likely), his only recourse of appeal would be to Karl Seitz, Mayor of Vienna – a socialist.

Waldemar Pabst

Berlin:  Prince August Wilhelm of Hohenzollern, son of the former Kaiser, announces he has abandoned his membership in the Stahlhelm nationalist paramilitary organization in favor of the nazis.  His reasons reportedly include the Stahlhelm’s lack of sufficient support for his fiery nationalist speeches, and his belief that Adolf Hitler and the nazis can provide the necessary zeal for the German nationalist movement.  He appeals to his own supporters to do the make the switch too.

Prince August Wilhelm of Hohenzollern

Helsinki:  The government suspends five communist newspapers and removes the governor of the Vaza district in an attempt to curb communist agitation.  President Lauri Kristian Relander cuts short his vacation to return home and deal with the crisis.

Friday, June 13, 1930

Vienna:  Chancellor Johann Schober’s bill to disarm Austria’s paramilitaries (including the fascist Heimwehr, see May 22), passes parliament.  Whether the government will in fact succeed in disarming the groups remains to be seen.

Thursday, June 12, 1930

Berlin:  The Minister of the Interior of the state of Prussia, Heinrich Waentig, bans nazis from wearing their uniforms and insignia, as their agitation and propaganda efforts grow.  Waentig is well aware of the nazis’ agitation tactics: in May, he drafted a memorandum on the topic.

Wednesday, June 11, 1930

Berlin:  As Chancellor Heinrich Bruening’s cabinet continues to debate solutions to Germany’s financial condition, the number of unemployed needing public relief grows.  New government reports put the total unemployed at 2.6 million, of which nearly 1.9 million need government assistance.

Tokyo:  Kato Hiroharu, Chief of Naval Staff and recently appointed member of the Supreme War Council, makes good on his threat from May, and resigns in protest over the London Naval Treaty.  

Tuesday, June 10, 1930

Tokyo:  Two more high level naval officials resign in protest over the London Naval Treaty: Admiral Yamanashi Katsunoshin, Vice Minister of the Navy, and Nobumasa Suyetsugu, Assistant Chief of General Staff.  

Monday, June 9, 1930

Berlin:  While Chancellor Heinrich Bruening’s tax increase proposals continue to meet with much public opposition, the German public is said to be pleased with the independent bilateral discussions going on between industrialists and labor unions on cutting prices and pay wages in tandem to spur the economy.  

Sunday, June 8, 1930

Bucharest:  Carol II’s victorious return to Romania is sealed, as the National Assembly, meeting in special session, votes 495 to 1 to proclaim him king.  The scene in Bucharest is described as “wild enthusiasm.”

Paris:  France holds its air show as planned, with crowds reported at 200,000.  

Saturday, June 7, 1930: Carol II's Triumphant Return to Romania

Bucharest:  Carol II, Prince of Romania, who renounced his right to the throne in 1925 after an extra-marital affair, flies into Bucharest in the middle of the night and is proclaimed king.  He is welcomed by his brother and several regiments of the military, and hailed by the public as savior of the nation, which is struggling in the Depression.  The person he would replace on the throne is his own son, Michael, age 8.  Carol says he will only rule until Michael comes of age.  The National Assembly is said to be overwhelmingly in favor of this development, and the prime minister has resigned to make way for it.

Rome:  More military display by Italy.  The air force holds a mock combat involving 20 divisions of warplanes to demonstrate the nation’s advances in air power.  This comes the day before France is scheduled to hold its own air show.

Friday, June 6, 1930

Berlin: Chancellor Heinrich Bruening’s plan for saving Germany’s finances by taxing workers’ salaries, corporate directors’ fees and bachelors, runs into immediate trouble.  Several political parties publicly oppose it.  They and their allied press outlets predict not only that the measure will fail to pass the Reichstag, but that Bruening’s cabinet will fall over it.  Meanwhile, the Prussian Trade Minister’s monthly report on economic conditions in that state (which makes up nearly 60% of Germany) describes “almost universal depression.”

 

Tokyo:  Government officials are said to be apprehensive about developments in Tsinan in the Chinese civil war: 2,000 Japanese students are trapped there as fighting approaches.  Tsinan was the scene of a brutal attack in 1928, when southern rebels overrunning the city killed 30 Japanese nationals. 

Gomel, Ukraine:  Kulaks (rich peasants) outraged at continued soviet collectivization of their farms, set fire to the two largest collective farms in the district.  Sheds containing agricultural equipment and machinery are destroyed, leaving the collectives without the means to produce food.  

Thursday, June 5, 1930

Germany:

Berlin:  Chancellor Heinrich Bruening’s cabinet proposes a plan to rescue Germany’s ailing finances by an emergency 10% tax increase on workers’ salaries, on fees earned by corporate directors, and on . . . unmarried men.  The latter is being called the “bachelor tax.”  How popular this idea will prove remains to be seen.

Nienburgh:  More evidence of the depression’s toll.  Farmers in this northern community tear up paving and barricade two streets into their village, wielding clubs and pitchforks, to prevent tax bailiffs from serving notice of non-payment on drainage assessments.  No violence breaks out; the bailiffs leave without delivering their notices.

Nice:  French authorities expel an ethnic Italian fascist for his role in sending a group from Nice’s Italian community to Rome as representatives of “Italian provinces and dominions” at a ceremony there.  That Nice is not an Italian province seems clear to the French.  But many in Italy still consider Nice and Savoy lost territories from the last century, before Italy’s unification.

Bucharest:  Romanian police uncover a widespread soviet propaganda organization in Bessarabia, the northeastern region which Romania has governed since 1918, but which Russia still considers her territory.  Police say the network had 16 centers, intended to agitate for the region’s communization and unification with the Soviet Union.

Wednesday, June 4, 1930

Berlin:  Chancellor Heinrich Bruening’s cabinet adjourns without agreeing on any new actions to solve Germany’s financial crisis.  Meanwhile representatives of the industrial community and labor unions, perhaps fed up with the government’s inactivity, reportedly hold their own bilateral discussions about cutting prices and pay wages in tandem, in an attempt to spur the economy.

 

Washington:  More evidence of the economic depression -- President Herbert Hoover considers a $3 billion federal bond issue to speed public works and get the unemployed working again.  The U.S. economic decline is said to total more than $63 billion to date.

Rome:  Foreign Minister Dino Grandi, in a speech to the Senate that appears intended to moderate (and “clarify”) Dictator Benito Mussolini’s bellicose comments from a few days before, says Italy is willing to postpone the aggressive naval building program it had announced earlier, if France does the same.  “The Italian government is disposed to postpone laying down its program for naval construction in 1930 provided the French government does the same for the program for 1930.  Considering the relative strength of the two fleets such a concession would have a greater effect on the Italian navy than on the French.”  

Tuesday, June 3, 1930

Berlin:  With Germany’s financial situation not improving, Chancellor Heinrich Bruening’s cabinet holds an executive session to discuss the situation.  Rumors are that Finance Minister Paul Moldenhauer’s position could be on the line.  

Monday, June 2, 1930

Eisleben, Germany: More bad economic news -- the Mansfeld copper mines close as management moves to cut wages.  

Sunday, June 1, 1930

Halle, Germany:  In a speech here, nationalist politician Alfred Hugenberg proposes a “reparations duty” – a tariff on all goods and raw products imported into Germany – to extract from the rest of the world funds for Germany to pay its war debts under the Young Plan.  “Whoever utilizes central Europe, its market, traffic system and culture, must help us bear the burden which the rest of the world imposed.”  Hugenberg further suggests that this duty would be the first step in an economic fusion of central Europe centered around Germany, as opposed to France’s plan for a “United States of Europe.”

Dunkelstein, Austria:  Socialists and Heimwehr fascists clash in a street battle, throwing stones and firing shots.  Injuries are described as “numerous,” including gunshot wounds.

Manchuria:  Japanese consular police and Chinese troops mobilize in the Kurin province in anticipation of further outbreaks of violence by Korean communists.

Philadelphia:  More bad economic news -- new data indicate unemployment here is 40 percent higher than same time last year.