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.

Monday, May 26, 1930: German Skirmish at the Polish Border, and Lawsuit to Stop Frick's 'Prayers of Hate'

Neuhoefen, Germany / Opalenie, Poland:  German and Polish border guards exchange gunfire in a brief skirmish that reportedly leaves one Polish soldier dead and a German officer wounded.  Each side claims the other started it: Germany says Polish shell casings were found on its side of the border; Poland says German blood was found on its side of the border.  Both sides promise an investigation.

Berlin:  The German government files a lawsuit against Wilhelm Frick, the nazi Minister of Education in the state of Thuringia, to stop the “prayers of hate” he has introduced into schools there.  From a legal standpoint, the question is whether the federal government can interfere in the state’s authority over its schools.  The hate prayers are one of several anti-semitic activities nazi leaders in Thuringia have introduced.

Tokyo:  Kato Hiroharu, Chief of Naval Staff, threatens to resign in protest over Japan’s approval of the London Naval Treaty. 

London:  More bad economic news: the opposition party predicts unemployment will reach 2 million by winter.

Friday, May 23, 1930

London:  More bad economic news: unemployment has reached nearly 15%.  

Monday, May 19, 1930

Tokyo:  Admiral Takarabe Takeshi, Minister of the Navy, is given a dagger with the recommendation that he use it to commit suicide to expiate the “crime” of his agreeing to the London Naval Treaty.  He doesn’t.  In fact, he publicly refuses today an earlier demand that he resign over the treaty.  Meanwhile, a naval officer does commit suicide to express his bitterness and despondency over the treaty.  Lt. Commander Eiji Jusakari, attached to the naval general staff, slashes his abdomen with a sword while on a train from Kobe to Tokyo.  He dies in a hospital where he is taken en route.

Paris:  An all-but-forgotten German-French committee discussing the return of the Rhineland to German control announces success: they have reached full agreement on withdrawing the last occupying French troops by June 30.  Separately, French officials burn US$37 billion worth of German bonds in a symbolic gesture illustrating the liquidation of all past reparation efforts, in view of the superseding Young Plan.

London:  The worldwide economic depression worsens: officials announce British unemployment has reached 2.5 million.  Just last week it was being announced at 1.7 million.

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.

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.

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.

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. 

Monday, 31 March 1930

Moscow:  The government exiles 90 Jews to Siberia for participating in groups the state deems illegal; 55 more are forced to sign statements promising not to leave Moscow and to discontinue their memberships. 

London:  The British fiscal year closes with a deficit of 14.5 million pounds, more than 18 million pounds below budget, due to the economic downturn.  Meanwhile, some 1,200 companies in the wool industry post notices of wage reductions, effective next week, due to the economic conditions. 

Thursday, 27 March 1930: German Chancellor Hermann Mueller's Government Falls

Berlin:  

The “Grand Coalition” government of Chancellor Hermann Mueller falls.  Having held together long enough to see the Young Plan through, against growing financial pressure, it falls apart now over a disagreement about funding unemployment insurance.  Two of the political parties that make up Mueller’s government, the German People’s Party and the Social Democrats –Mueller’s own party – cannot agree on the matter, and the Social Democrats announce they are withdrawing. 

 The Social Democrats, representing primarily socialists, want to see unemployment insurance funded to the fullest extent possible, despite the cry from many in the populace for relief from taxes.  The German People’s Party, representing primarily industrialists, want to see the cost of funding the unemployment insurance reduced.  Mueller and many of the socialists were prepared to negotiate a compromise, but Rudolf Wissell, Social Democrat Minister of Labor, wouldn’t budge and led the withdrawal.  Mueller tendered his resignation to President Paul von Hindenburg shortly thereafter.

Unemployment benefits are costing Germany $300-400 million annually. 

Mueller’s cabinet has governed since June 1928.  Early speculation centers on Heinrich Bruening, a centrist, as a replacement.  Mueller himself has recommended him. 

The Mueller cabinet 

Bundesarchiv, Bild 146-1980-129-18A / Ruge, Willi / CC-BY-SA

Used under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Germany license

Elsewhere:

England:  More evidence of the worldwide economic depression: a new survey shows that 100,000 mill workers are unemployed in Lancashire.  Sources call it the worst economic depression in that part of the country since the 1860s.

 Tokyo:  The government still hasn’t replied to a U.S.-backed proposal from the London Naval Conference that Japan accept a 66-2/3 ratio of capital ships compared to the U.S. and Great Britain (which is less than the 70% Japan sought).  Sources say opposition to the reduced ratio from within the naval general staff is so fierce, the government is fearful of precipitating a crisis if it moves too quickly.  

Tuesday, 25 March 1930

London:  More evidence of the growing worldwide economic depression – new government figures put unemployment at over 1.6 million, worst since 1922.  The National Unemployed Workers’ Movement announces plans for a jobless march, asking for government relief.

Washington:  Still more evidence of the depression -- unemployment among union members is at 21%, according to the American Federation of Labor.  That’s actually down a notch from 22% in February, but, “Improvement is not yet general,” says William Green, President of the AFL.  

Sunday, 23 March 1930

Potsdam, Germany:  A mob of communists attempts to set free the inmates of a compulsory education school.  The facility director learns of their approach and calls the police, 22 of whom arrive armed with rifles.  120 communists are arrested.

 

Criuleni, Romania:  Authorities say they have uncovered a Russian spy plot after they arrest the municipal clerk of the town as he’s attempting to cross the Dniester River into Russia.  In his possession they find 500 forged Romanian citizenship certificates, a list of employees of the Romanian secret service, and a handful of confidential military documents.  The clerk says he got the materials from two officers in the Romanian military.  When police descend on one of the officer’s homes to arrest him, a gunfight erupts before he is arrested. 

London:  The worldwide economic depression worsens: government reports show unemployment is the worst since 1926, and still trending downward.

Saturday, 22 March 1930

England:

London:  At the naval conference, a scheduled meeting between British Prime Minister Ramsay MacDonald and French Prime Minister Andrae Tardieu is cancelled, signaling definitively that France is out of the parley.  After two months of meetings, the conference is at a complete standstill – with nothing to show for its effort -- as Great Britain and the U.S. await word from Japan on whether a 3-way pact can still be signed.  Many in the press are saying the conference will have been a complete failure if Japan’s reply is negative.

Manchester:  More evidence of the Depression’s spread: an estimated 25% of cotton operatives in Lancashire are out of work, some so destitute they can’t get food to eat. 

Elsewhere:

Paris:  Finance Minister Paul Reynaud, in a committee speech, says that barring unforeseen circumstances, he expects France will remove all forces and end its occupation of the Rhineland by June 30.

Moscow:  Tens of thousands of demonstrators march for three hours here and in other cities around Russia in protest against religion.  

Sunday, 16 March 1930

Tokyo:  

Press reports state that the “two-thirds” ratio of capital ships proposed for Japan at the London Naval Conference is causing a rift between military and civilian government leaders in Japan.  Naval officers are displeased with the “second-class citizen” status the ratio would give Japan.

Vienna:  

The government announces that the Austrian national anthem has been changed (for the fourth time since the World War).  The new anthem will be Deutschland, Deutschland-Uber Alles (Germany, Germany Above All) which is also Germany’s national anthem.  This was also Austria’s national anthem before the war (though with different words).  The socialist mayor of Vienna, Karl Seitz, dislikes the anthem so much he refuses to stand or remove his hat when it is played.

England:  

In response to a call from Cosmo Gordon Lang, Archbishop of Canterbury, Anglicans throughout the country hold special prayer services on behalf of persecuted Christians in Russia.  Indeed, Christians as well as Jews around the world are supposed to be holding similar prayer services .  Rev. A.F.W. Ingram, Bishop of London, says, “to think that all those bishops have been butchered [in Russia], all those priests murdered!”

New York:  

Police are busy guarding special prayer meetings in area churches, called on behalf of persecuted Christians in Russia, as well as guarding 12,000 people attending a communist anti-religion rally at Bronx Coliseum.  At the communist rally, the crowd boos religion, calls for an end to class war, and pillories everyone from New York Police Chief Grover Whalen to Italian Dictator Benito Mussolini to the Pope.  The meeting is guarded by 450 police with riot gear, machine guns and paddy wagons, but it is peaceful.

Paris:  

Miguel Primo de Rivera, who until six weeks ago was dictator of Spain, dies unexpectedly in his hotel room here.  Cause of death is said to be an embolism, a complication of his diabetes.

Saturday, 8 March 1930

Germany:

Berlin:  Defense Minister Lieut. Gen. Wilhelm Groener issues a memorandum to military officers around the country to be extra watchful, as his office has received information indicating that communists believe the time is right in Germany for a communist revolution.  Meanwhile, Germany sends notice to the Soviet Union that it will blame that country for any future communist propaganda within German borders.  Most western governments consider it a “worst-kept secret” that COMINTERN is state sponsored by the Soviet Union.

Meanwhile, Wilhelm Marx, former Chancellor, pens an article which appears in newspapers outside of Germany, warning the world against the “insane bolshevist teachings” of soviet Russia.  “Bolshevism, which is regarded by all advanced peoples as utterly insane, is striving for world wide revolution, and has secured dominion over the Russian people.  Its aim is to shatter every state and human institution, and especially capitalism, in order to erect on the ruins a new order – to create indeed a new type of human beings.  The ideas embodied in this doctrine, so destructive to humanity, exercise a strong fascination especially on peoples little affected by general culture.  The Chinese empire, which had hardly been touched by world history for over a thousand years, was within an astonishingly short space of time menaced to its very existence to the highest degree by Bolshevik propaganda.  All this was finally counteracted, but perhaps only temporarily. 

But for Europe the menace of the East remains as a threatening storm cloud on the horizon.  Supported by incalculable natural resources and the tenacity of the Slavic race in its endurance of the greatest wretchedness, men in power in Russia are carrying on their propaganda with inexhaustible funds.  Naturally the neighboring states are the chief sufferers.  Perhaps the countries victorious in the world war will one day have to regret that in drawing up the Treaty of Versailles they concentrated all their efforts toward weakening Germany.  It is alone due to the healthy common sense of the German people and to their steadfast love for order that bolshevist agitation has hitherto been able to gain comparatively little ground.  But the bolshevist menace should serve also as a warning to other countries not to destroy Germany’s economic basis.  An impoverished people whose widest circles are doomed to want, is naturally the best culture medium for bolshevist agitation.  The very existence of states, the conservation and health of peoples and all social and economic order are menaced if these insane teachings of the bolshevist leaders should gain dominion over a still greater part of humanity.”

Meanwhile, the effects of the worldwide economic depression deepen:  Bankruptcies are up 43% over same month 1929.  In Cologne, the Social Democrat Association of Police announces that carnivals will be considered out of place at a time when 2.5 million people are receiving unemployment assistance.

Elsewhere: 

Washington:  The National Unemployment League appeals to President Herbert Hoover and Congress to enact immediate legislation starting a public works system to reduce unemployment. 

London:  The British government releases a white paper which it says reveals a decree issued in the Soviet Union earlier this year limiting religion.  The decree forbids meetings for prayer or Bible study, calls for religious buildings to be nationalized, and mandates that all confiscated church funds be turned over to the state.  

Thursday, 27 February 1930

Madrid:  

Demonstrations and riots against King Alfonso sweep parts of the country.  Thousands gather in the streets here and clash with police, who charge them with swords.  The disturbances follow a speech by former Prime Minister Jose Antonio Sanchez Guerra, the “grand old man” of Spanish politics, who, though a monarchist, declares that he is opposed to any further rule by King Alfonso.  “I will never again serve the present king,” he says.  New Prime Minister Damaso Berenguer announces that no further public political speeches will be permitted. 

London:  

Bishop Nickolai (or Nicholas), head of the Russian Orthodox Church in London, releases a letter which accuses the Soviet Union of torture and other atrocities against people of faith.  He claims a seminary leader in Voronezh was beaten with crucifixes and had molten lead poured down his throat.  An archbishop in Perm reportedly had his eyes gouged out and was dragged through the streets and killed, along with 40 other monks and priests.  “I would like this country to protest, and the whole civilized world to express its detestation of Russian persecution of Christianity.  Some of those prominently connected with the protest movement fear lest their religious protest should trespass on political issues.  To such, I say that no protest is likely to intensify trouble in Russia, and that the bolshevists can not do more in the way of atrocious persecution than they are now doing.”

Moscow:  

The chairman of the anti-religious committee of the communist party in Moscow issues an order for closings of churches, synagogues and mosques to speed up.  “Heretofore we have been extremely cautious about taking action on petitions for closing churches from workers and peasants.  But in view of the present agitation all over the world and in the soviets themselves, we can afford to be less timid.”    

Meanwhile, new reports of Jewish leaders arrested: the chief rabbi of Leningrad and another rabbi are reported held on charges of maintaining illegal connections abroad.  And synagogues in Vilna are reportedly being closed by soviet authorities.  

Chicago:  

After breaking up a communist meeting yesterday, authorities announce they have uncovered plans for a worldwide demonstration by communists set for March 6. 

Sunday, 23 February 1930

Moscow:  

The soviet government, communist party, and their newspapers lash out at the rest of the world on the 12^th anniversary of the founding of the Red Army, and in the continuing upheaval surrounding the allegation that death penalties were meeted out to rabbis in Minsk.  Izvetia writes: “All the forces of reaction throughout the world are mobilized against the Soviet Union, which is going full speed ahead toward socialism.  The Pope, the Archbishop of Canterbury, the French police, the English die-hards, socialists, fascists, foreign counterfeiters of soviet money, and the German bourgeoisie have united into one holy union to launch new bandit attacks upon our country.  But the rulers of capitalistic Europe forget they are dancing the cancan on a barrel of powder.  We will remain firm and calm, watching this dance of dying capitalism.  In our country, all workers and peasants are convinced of the final results of the struggle between bolshevism and capitalism.  They know our government stands in defense of peace. They want peace themselves, but if the enemy directs his guns on the land of the proletarian dictatorship, each worker and peasant will consider it an honor to participate in the victorious marches of the Red Army in order to destroy the class enemy.”

 

Meanwhile the Jewish communist newspaper Oktiabre writes that rabbis in foreign countries are spies and therefore “these holy damagers should be carefully watched.”  Tass, the official government news agency, calls the report that rabbis in Minsk were going to be executed a “deliberate lie,” adding that “similar information emanating from Warsaw is false and part of the ring in the present anti-soviet campaign abroad.”  Supposedly, according to the soviet press, Jews themselves in Russia are marching in the streets, begging the authorities to close synagogues and convert them to secular uses. 

Nonetheless, U.S. Senator William Borah, who had written to Maxim Litvinov, Russian Acting Commissar of Foreign Affairs inquiring about the sentenced rabbis, says he has received word that the rabbis have been freed. 

In New York, speakers in churches and synagogues across the city attack Russia’s anti-religious persecution.  In Chicago, Jewish groups raise funds for the persecuted Jews in Russia.  And in Berlin, a mass meeting of Protestant churches is held to pray for the persecuted in Russia, and call on Christians worldwide to protest against it. 

Elsewhere:

Great Britain:  The worldwide depression deepens: a report says unemployment here now numbers 1.5 million.

Germany:  More bad economic news: unemployment among labor union members is now reported at 22%.  

Thursday, 13 February 1930: Soviet Press Fires Back at Churches

Libya:  

Italian air strafing and bombing of fleeing Libyan resistance fighters, and their civilian family members, continues along the Libya-Algeria border. 

Moscow:  

The Soviet press fires back at Russia’s religious critics around the world.  Pravda, the official communist newspaper, says of the Pope’s recent criticisms of Russia’s persecution of religion: “His appeal is really a call to the nations to sever relations with the Soviet Union, for the soviet never will allow foreigners to interfere in their religious policy.  So far, all evil yelping against the soviets lacked only the Holy Father’s sweet voice.  This representative of God on earth hitherto preferred to hold his peace; he thought the weakening Orthodox Church would clear the way for Rome.  Only now, when he has become convinced that the working class in Russia intends to wipe out all superstitions without distinction of creed, has his Holiness decided to take up the defense of persecuted religion.  This head of the Catholic Church certainly is less interested in the problems of the Orthodox Church, Judaism, or even Catholicism than the worldly goods it may involve.  This means indifference to the progress of our industrialization, to collectivization of our agriculture, which spoil the beauty sleep of the western birds of prey.  Like every other financier and exploiter of labor, the Pope is an enemy of the working class.  That is why he appeals to all countries to make religious freedom a condition of recognizing the soviets.” 

The Komsomolskal Pravda, newspaper of the Young Communists’ League, publishes a cartoon of a bloated Pope holding a swastika with a small cross nailed upon it. 

London:  

Religious persecution in soviet Russia dominates discussion in the House of Commons.  Foreign Secretary Arthur Henderson, answering questions from legislators, says “Reports as regards the religious situation in Russia are receiving serious consideration of his majesty’s government.  The house may rest assured that his majesty’s government will use its influence in support of the cause of religious liberty and freedom of religious practices.”  British Ambassador to Moscow, Sir Esmond Ovey, is ordered to investigate reports of religious persecution in Russia, and the House of Lords passes a resolution denouncing Russia for its anti-religious activity.  Joseph Hertz, Chief Rabbi of the United Kingdom, joins his voice with those of the Catholic and Anglican churches in protest of Soviet religious persecution. 

Meanwhile, at the naval conference, reliable reports surface that Japan has agreed to a 66-2/3 ratio of cruisers compared to the United States and Great Britain.  This would represent an increase from Japan’s current 60% ratio, but less than the 70% Japan came into the conference seeking.  “Japan attaches special importance to eight-inch gun cruisers, and desires to maintain here a minimum strength sufficient for national defense, taking into consideration the strengths held by the other powers,” says Raijiro Wakatsuki, of Japan’s delegation, in an official statement before the conference.  But he makes no mention of the 70% ratio, which observers thought he would.  Thus the belief that Japan has agreed to yield on its stated demands.  “This certainly leaves the door wide open for future discussion and is not in any sense the ultimatum which might be apprehended in some quarters,” says an unofficial spokesman for the U.S. delegation. 

Yet Japan is unwilling to make such an explicit statement officially, in part because Japanese elections are coming up next Tuesday, and the delegation is concerned that the present government would be perceived as having backed down in London.

Elsewhere:  

Paris:  Russia claims French police have arrested the Second Secretary of the Soviet Embassy in the case of the disappearance of Alexander Koutiepoff.  Paris police deny the charge. 

Offenbach, Germany:  Communists and nazis clash in a street battle.

Berlin:  More impact from the global economic depression: The government decides to appropriate no funds for completion of a second Deutschland-class heavy cruiser, sometimes called a “pocket battleship,” which would be one of six Germany is allowed under the Treaty of Versailles.  An estimated $14 million is needed to complete it.

 

Spain: The depression also adds to the new government’s difficulties in getting established after the resignation of dictator Miguel Primo de Rivera.  Parades and demonstrations by the unemployed have left Madrid and Barcelona under heavy police presence.

Italy:  Still more impact from the global economic depression: unemployment is reported over 462,000.

Wednesday, 12 February 1930: Anglicans, Catholics Protest Soviet Religious Persecution; "Two-Thirds Ratio" for Japan Emerges from London Conference

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.” 

Friday, 7 February 1930

Rome:  

Austria and Italy sign a Treaty of Friendship and Conciliation.  The countries fought on opposite sides in the World War, and the issue of former Austrian subjects in southern parts of the Tyrol region, who now live in Italy based on the redrawn post-war borders, has been a sore point between the two countries.

The pact calls for the creation of a conciliation committee to which differences between the two countries can be referred.  Austrian Chancellor Johan Schober gave Italian dictator Benito Mussolini the grand cordon with the gold star of merit to thank him for Italy’s friendship, including support for Austria at the recent Hague war debt reparation conference.

Observers, including the Austrian press, debate the significance of the treaty.  Some see it as part of a strategy by Mussolini to encircle Yugoslavia.  Others see it as a way for both Schober and Mussolini to resist “pan-Germans” in Austria, who see closer alliance with Germany as Austria’s future.

 

London:  

At the naval conference, the British delegation makes headlines the day after the U.S. delegation.  Prime Minister Gordon MacDonald joins in the U.S. call for the abolition of submarines; calls for a suspension of building battleships until 1936, with the ultimate hope that battleships may be abolished too; calls for tonnage limitations on cruisers; and more.  The conference, MacDonald says, “Ought not only reduce existing fleets and building programs, but put an end finally to competition in naval armaments and thus constitute an important step for ultimate elimination of the causes of war and the establishment of peace on an unassailable foundation.”  As with the U.S. announcement the day before, the Japanese delegation is not commenting on the British announcement.

Germany:   

Berlin:  President Paul von Hindenburg, the Reichstag, and the cabinet of Chancellor Hermann Mueller give their government entertainment appropriations to charity in hopes both of setting an example and leading the way in confronting Germany’s worsening economic situation.

Munich:  A newspaper publishes an article by an anonymous writer which states that the former Kaiser Wilhelm II expects to be recalled to rule.  The author, said to be a former nobleman and officer in the imperial German army, says he dined with Wilhelm in Doorn, Holland, where he lives.  “You are trained to obey and to serve, and what have you done with your new freedom?  What will you do when the president you have chosen for yourselves dies?  I will tell you.  The nation will call its Kaiser.”