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.