Tuesday, 10 December 1929

China:  The country still hangs on the brink.  Communist rebel forces launch an attack on Nanking, capital of the nationalist government, where Chiang Kai-shek is making a last stand.  They’re only 40 miles out.  

Monday, 9 December 1929

Berlin:  

The cabinet of Chancellor Hermann Mueller meets all day to discuss the crisis precipitated in part by Reichsbank President Hjalmar Schacht’s broadside on Germany’s financial affairs.  They’re trying to come up with proposals that will be acceptable to the various political parties that make up Mueller’s coalition government, and keep it from breaking apart, but also address some of the cry for financial reform from Schacht.  If Mueller’s government were to fall, fears are that the Liberty Law referendum might gain momentum in the power vacuum, and the Hague reparations conference scheduled to start next month might be threatened. 

China:  

The country, and the foreigners in it, are in a state of panic.  The nationalist government is thought to be on the brink of collapse.  Canton is also reported near collapse.  Forces loyal to nationalist government leader Chiang Kai-shek outnumber the rebels 3-to-1 there, and are supported by gunboats in the harbor, but looting and mutinies among government forces continues, weakening their resolve.  Great Britain and the U.S. both have warships at hand to protect their nationals. 

Sunday, 8 December 1929

China:  With the rebellion raging in five different parts of the country, nationalist government head Chiang Kai-shek denies rumors he will resign.  Foreign observers predict Chiang will be defeated.  Several cities are reported surrounded or threatened by rebel forces. 

Saturday, 7 December 1929: Nazis Gain in Thuringia Elections

Germany:

Berlin:  Reaction to Reichsbank President Hjalmar Schacht’s broadside relative to the Young Plan (see Dec. 5) is fierce, both from inside and outside of Germany.  The federal government says that for Schacht even to make such statements risks violating Germany’s agreements following the World War.  And sources within the government are letting it be known that Schacht may not be asked to attend the second round of meetings on the Young Plan, scheduled to start in a couple of weeks in The Hague.

Outside of Germany, the French press see Schacht’s comments as political maneuvering for leadership of the nationalist movement within Germany (especially with Alfred Hugenberg in decline after his Liberty Law fiasco), as well as posturing in advance of the upcoming Hague conference at which the debt payments will be discussed. 

Schacht’s memo, though, is already producing a divide within Germany.  Bankers and big industry are tending to line up behind Schacht’s analysis, hailing the statement as just the kind of strong tonic Germany needs to solve its economic problems.  The government of Chancellor Hermann Mueller has called for a vote of confidence in the Reichstag next Wednesday.

Weimar:  Meanwhile, elections for the legislature (or “Landtag”) of the central German state of Thuringia are being held today.  By nightfall, when results are coming out, it is clear that the national socialist party (nazis) have scored another victory, though their numbers are still small.  The nazis have garnered 11% of the popular vote, which will give them 6 seats in the Landtag, making them the 3^rd-largest party.  That’s far below the 34% earned by the leading Social Democrats.  But enough that it will make forming a coalition government difficult without including the nazis. 

Vienna:  

The Federal Assembly (parliament) approves the constitutional revisions that Chancellor Johann Schober has been working on for five weeks.  The changes: reduce the autonomy of socialist-leaning Vienna within the country, but retain its status as a state; reduce Vienna’s tax contribution to the federal government but steer part of it to an adjoining state; introduce direct election of Austria’s President; broaden some of the President’s powers, for example emergency powers and to dissolve Parliament, but also restrict others in an attempt to avoid dictatorship; and call for absorption of the Social Democratic militia into the state police.  Of immediate practical importance, the changes are thought to defuse the potential for a coup by the nationalist Heimwehr paramilitary, as both nationalists and socialists got some of what they wanted.

China: 

The nationalist government capital of Nanking is cut off from communication, as rebel troops have it under siege.  Many of Chiang Kai-shek’s best generals have defected.  Communist rebel forces are also still reported to be advancing on Canton.  Both Nanking and Canton, as well as Shanghai and Hankow, are under martial law.  British gunboats are preparing to remove British nationals.  Chiang is reportedly mustering 70,000 troops for a last stand in his capital. 

Friday, 6 December 1929

Berlin:  

The cabinet of Chancellor Hermann Mueller holds a meeting to discuss the memo that Reichsbank President Hjalmar Schacht issued last night, which blasted them and foreign powers for failure to meet the necessary terms of the Young Plan. 

Libya:  

Italian forces conducting a suppression campaign against Libyan resistance fighters take the town of Brach by surprise attack, without a shot fired. 

Vienna:  

University and high school officials, at a special meeting, decide they are closing their institutions for an indefinite period of time, in an effort to get control over the violence plaguing the schools.  Socialist and nationalist students often battle each other, disrupting lectures and resulting in frequent calls to the police.  And the nationalist students also battle against Jewish students and professors.  Property damage from the fighting has been extensive. 

Warsaw:  

Communists hold demonstrations in several parts of Poland, including a group of mostly teenage boys who parade past the U.S. Embassy here, throwing rocks, breaking windows and shouting against what they call the “American intervention in the Chinese-soviet conflict.”  Police arrest 5.  

China:  

Nanking, capital of the nationalist government, is under martial law as the troop defections that started three days ago have turned into full-scale rebellion.  Canton, on the southern coast, is also under martial law, with communist rebel forces approaching, refugees pouring in, and executions and police raids rampant.  U.S. gunboats in Canton harbor are on guard.

Thursday, 5 December 1929: Reichsbank President Schacht Blasts Germany's Leadership

Berlin:  

A broadside hits the German political landscape relative to support for the Young Plan, and it comes from an unexpected source.  Reichsbank President Hjalmar Schacht surprises nearly everyone when he releases tonight a memo to Chancellor Hermann Mueller and to the public – at the same time.  The memo blasts both Germany’s political leadership, and other nations’ political leadership, for failing to do what is necessary to make the Young Plan successful. 

First, the surprise: Schacht was supposedly the chief German delegate to the Hague meetings that negotiated the Young Plan.  Yet press reports coming out in the wake of this development are pointing out that Schacht hardly participated in those meetings, showing up for only a few days, and never seeking private audiences with other government officials to whom he might have made these views known.

 

Second, the content of Schacht’s broadside:  Schacht’s memo says both the German government and foreign governments have failed to follow the procedures necessary to make the Young Plan successful.  Foreign governments, he says, have not stuck with the Young Plan as it was originally presented – they’ve changed the terms as the negotiations have gone along, thereby placing additional burdens on Germany that will make it harder for her to pay the debts.  This while the German economy has lost the prospective revenue of hundreds of millions of marks in private claims against Poland arising from the World War, which Germany agreed to abandon. 

The German government, for its part, has not taken steps to get its own financial house in order, which will be necessary if Germany is to meet the terms of the plan.  Schacht says Germany’s posture relative to the Young Plan was predicated on stimulating economic production, thereby increasing the country’s ability to pay, and settling once and for all the way revenues are shared between the federal government and the municipalities (which are accused of spending too freely).  But Schacht says nothing has been done, either to stimulate economic output or to settle the revenue-sharing arrangements.  As a result, the revisions of the Young Plan, far from reducing Germany’s debt burden, won’t even address the deficit already envisioned.  As a result, Schacht says, he cannot be held further responsible for prospects of the Young Plan within Germany.  He says Germany’s creditors won’t approve the loans to Germany that they’re contemplating, and yet they bear part of the blame for it.  

Schacht evidently discussed his views with members of the Mueller cabinet earlier in the week, but reportedly received a cool reception.  The Berlin stock market drops sharply after his memo is published. Adding to the confusion of Schacht’s memo is the way he chose to disseminate it – releasing it simultaneously to Mueller and the public.  Press observers are saying it is without precedent in German political history. 

China:  

The troop mutinies that started at Pukow are spreading, with more troops in more regions reportedly revolting to join the rebels.  Five provinces, including large parts of the Yangtse River Valley, are reporting unrest.  The rebels fire on British gunboats in the Yangstse River at Ichang.

Wednesday, 4 December 1929

Washington:  

Secretary of State Henry Stimson denounces Russia’s statement from yesterday that the United States’ urging Russia to settle the Manchuria dispute was “unfriendly.”  Stimson says rather the U.S. action was prompted by the seriousness with which the United States views the Kellogg-Briand Pact.  Stimson reiterates a belief that public opinion can be used as a tool for enforcing peace, and for encouraging compliance with the Kellogg-Briand Pact by the nations who signed it. 

Moscow:  

Yet Russia keeps up the war of words.  Maxim Litninoff, Acting Commissar of Foreign Affairs, advises “protectors of the Kellogg pact” to keep their attentions focused on their own parts of the world.  “The Soviet Union, unlike other countries, rejected extraterritorial rights and privileges in China, and it would seem strange why, under this circumstance, the Nanking and Mukden governments took the path of violence with provocations toward soviet Russia.  This is explained by the simple fact that the start and further encouragement of actions of the Nanking government originated from the imperialistic camp.” 

Elsewhere: 

Shanghai:  Meanwhile the national government of China also issues a reply to the communiqué it, like Russia, received from the United States and other world powers, urging it to settle the Manchuria conflict peacefully.  The reply promises that, “apart from measures of self-protection and defense of territorial sovereignty against external invasions, China would observe her obligations under the pact.”

China:  The troop rebellions in the civil war grow more serious.  Reports say the number of mutinous troops in Pukow is 15,000, and they’ve headed north after looting the city.  Meanwhile, communist rebels have reportedly killed 100 people and looted the city of Kanchow (Ganzhou), in southern China.

Berlin:  The fallout from Alfred Hugenberg’s Liberty Law initiative continues: 8 more German Nationalist People’s Party delegates in the Reichstag resign, including the party chairman, joining the six who resigned yesterday in protest of Hugenberg’s leadership.  Ten more are expected to follow soon.  

Tuesday, 3 December 1929

Berlin:  

The political fallout begins for nationalist political leader Alfred Hugenberg over his failed Liberty Law* initiative.  Six Reichstag delegates from his German National People’s Party resign from the party in protest over Hugenberg’s leadership, which has been driving the party increasingly nationalist.  This follows the split already evident last week, when some of his own party’s members voted against his proposed Liberty Law.  But Hugenberg is also being excoriated from the even more radically nationalist Adolf Hitler, leader of the national socialists.  

Russia: 

Nikolsk-Ussurlisky: Russian and Manchurian officials sign an agreement formally ending fighting in the Russian invasion of Manchuria.  According to dispatches, joint control of the Chinese Eastern Railway will be reinstated.  It’s still not clear what role the national government of China has in this agreement, if any, nor what recognition it will give the agreement, if any . . . nor that it even matters, given the central government’s tenuous-at-best rule in Manchuria. 

Moscow:  Meanwhile, the soviet government informs the French government (which is acting as the mediator between the United States and Soviet Union, since the two countries have no diplomatic relations) that it considers “unfriendly” the recent U.S. advice that Russia keep in mind the Kellogg-Briand Pact which it signed, and settle the Manchuria dispute peacefully.

 

“The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, from the first day of its existence, has pursued a policy of peace, and unlike other powers has never resorted to military action except as a necessary step for defense, due to direct attack on the union or armed intervention in its internal affairs.  The Soviet Union has consistently pursued this policy and intends to pursue it independently of the Paris pact for abolition of war.”  The response goes on to outline Russia’s case that it was China’s policy over the Chinese Eastern Railway that started the conflict.    

“The climax of this policy was the seizure of the Chinese Eastern Railway without any warning or preliminary presentation of any claims, in violation of existing agreements regarding the joint administration of the railway.  The soviet government believes that if action such as that of the Nanking government were taken toward the United States, Great Britain or France, it would be considered by their governments sufficient cause for putting into force reservations they made when signing the pact.  [. . .]  The Nanking government not only resorted to illegal seizure of the Chinese Eastern Railway, but mobilized along the soviet Manchurian railway an army, various sections of which, together with counter revolutionary Russian bands included therein, made systematic attacks on the U.S.S.R., crossing the frontier and firing on units of the Red Army and frontier villages, robbing and violating a peaceful population, causing thereby losses of lives and property.  Despite frequent warnings through the German government, these attacks did not cease but rather increased and compelled the soviet far-eastern army, in the interests of defense, protection of the frontier and the peaceful population, to take counter measures.  Thus the actions of the Red Army had due considerations of self-defense and were in no wise violations of any obligations of the Paris pact.

“That cannot be said of armed forces in Chinese territory and Chinese ports of those powers who have applied Tuesday to the Soviet Union with identical declarations.  The soviet government states that the government of the United States has addressed its declaration at a moment when the soviet and Mukden governments already had agreed to several conditions and were proceeding with direct negotiations which would make possible prompt settlement of the conflict between the Soviet Union and China.  In view of this fact, the above declaration cannot but be considered unjustifiable pressure on the negotiations, and cannot therefore be taken as a friendly act.  In conclusion, the soviet government cannot forbear expressing amazement that the government of the United States, which by its own will has no official relations with the soviet, deems it possible to apply to it with advice and counsel.” 

China:  

New fighting erupts in the civil war.  Communist rebels are reportedly advancing on Canton, on the southern coast, and two divisions of nationalist government troops mutiny at Pukow, across the river from the capital of Nanking, after refusing orders to deploy to Canton. 

Monday, 2 December 1929

Washington:  

The United States issues an appeal to 53 nations that signed the Kellogg-Briand pact, which prohibited war as means of national policy, to join in pressuring Russia and China to solve their Manchuria dispute through peaceful means.  Separately, the U.S. notifies Russia and China that the respect with which they are held by the rest of the world will depend on peaceful resolution.  Since the U.S. has no diplomatic relations with Soviet Russia, that message is delivered via the French government.  Great Britain issues a memorandum the same day saying it is prepared to join in the effort to bring about a peaceful settlement to the Manchurian dispute.  Japan issues a statement saying it does not intend to support the U.S. initiative.

Germany:  

Berlin: The Federation of German Industries, a large and influential trade group, releases a statement calling for sweeping economic, financial and socio-political reforms if Germany is to avoid economic collapse.  The group says high taxes, excessive government handouts and federal government aid to German states, are financially unsound and will lead to ruin if not stopped.

Darmstadt: 250 members of the nationalist Stahlhelm paramilitary group are arrested after clashing with civilians.  

Sunday, 1 December 1929

Rome:  

Pope Pius XI, in a speech to a gathering of Rome’s parish priests, criticizes Italy’s fascist government and press, saying Catholic newspapers in Italy are finding it more difficult to discuss church issues freely.  Conversely, he says Italy’s fascist press is discussing matters related to the church with “indiscretion.” 

Moscow:  

The communist government jails Princess Sophie Lieven, sister-in-law of Sir Kynaston Studd, former Lord Mayor of London, for teaching Bible lessons to the children of workers’ families.  Ms. Lieven is also daughter of the former Grand Master of Ceremonies of the Russian Imperial Court.  She is being held in the Lublanka jail in Moscow.