Sunday, May 25, 1930

Berlin:  More bad economic news: the government reports that tax revenues to date are projected only to make the government’s budget deficit worse.

Saturday, May 24, 1930

Milan:  Dictator Benito Mussolini wraps up a tour of Tuscany with another fiery speech, although toned down from his last two.  “We are well enough informed of the spirit dominating some of our neighbors,” he says, another thinly veiled reference to France.  His audience again responds with cries of “Down with France!”  He also takes the opportunity to deny what he claims are rumors that Italy had sent troops to Albania to aid King Zog. 

Kiel, Germany:  Communists and nazis clash again, injuring 12.  

Friday, May 23, 1930

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

Thursday, May 22, 1930

Vienna:  New information on Chancellor Johan Schober: he is not resigning, but rather is reportedly planning to move forward with submitting to parliament a bill to disarm Austria’s paramilitaries, ignoring the Heimwehr’s conditions for doing so.  It is a bold, risky political game, but one Schober appears to be winning: leading politicians who were aligned with the Heimwehr are reported defecting, emboldening the chancellor.

 

Berlin:  The German public is incensed as it comes to light that France has demanded the destruction of three large airship hangars at Griesbach, considering them a threat to French security.  

Wednesday, May 21, 1930

Vienna:  Newspapers are reporting that Chancellor Johan Schober, still embroiled in a struggle to get both nationalist and socialist paramilitary groups to disarm peaceably, has threatened to resign rather than meet the conditions the nationalist Heimwehr paramilitary has demanded for disarmament, which include appointing a Heimwehr member as his Minister of the Interior and appointing a new police chief for Vienna.

Tuesday, May 20, 1930

Ludwigshaven, Germany:  Consistent with yesterday’s announcement, the commander of French forces occupying the Rhineland gives orders for the first 2,000 troops to prepare to leave.  A total of 40,000 troops will evacuate by June 30. 

Prague:  A socialist newspaper alleges that Italian dictator Benito Mussolini has plans to put Otto von Hapsburg, the last crown prince of Austria-Hungary, on the throne of Hungary as part of his designs to dominate eastern Europe. 

Milan:  Meanwhile, “Il Duce” keeps up the speechmaking.  At a ceremony honoring the fascist dead and inaugurating a new headquarters for the fascist party here, Mussolini calls fascism the “hope of Europe.”  

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.

Sunday, May 18, 1930: Bellicose speeches from Mussolini; Austria's fascists release Korneuburg Oath

Florence:  Another bellicose speech from Dictator Benito Mussolini as he reviews a massive assemblage of Italian armed forces that includes 45 planes and 14,000 troops.  Seated on a magnificent horse, Mussolini watches a parade of soldiers, sailors and blackshirt militiamen that’s being called the largest gathering of Italian armed forces since the end of the World War.

“Italy’s friendship is precious, but her enmity is hard.  There is great ignorance about us.  People abroad think we are a minor people, but we are a nation numbering 40 million.  They think we are governed by tyranny, but it is the Italian people who govern.  I am certain that in order not to remain prisoners of the sea, the Italian people are capable of great sacrifices.  More important than my speech today are the big guns and machine guns which I shall see in tomorrow’s parade.  The new naval program will be carried out exactly as it was laid down in 1929, and new ships will be afloat because the fascist will is a will of iron.  There are people who think they can isolate Italy, and who would not be adverse from starting a war against the Italian people, even through the territory of a third power.  We will await them at the crossing.”

“Fascist Italy henceforth will be a unit so organized as to be unassailable and without mortal danger.  Though words are beautiful things, rifles, machine guns, ships, airplanes, and big guns are still more beautiful.  Right is a vain word unless it is accompanied by might.”

“If by chance something should happen on the frontier, then we people, black shirts, army and former service men, would be at our posts ready to break the proud and vain attack.”  The crowd responds with cries of, “Down with France!”

In France, the full text of Mussolini’s similarly combative speech from yesterday is reprinted in many newspapers.

 

Korneuburg, Austria:  The fascist Heimwehr paramilitary releases the “Korneuburg Oath,” a declaration condemning both “Marxist class struggle” and “liberal-capitalist economic system,” as well as rejecting the Western democratic parliamentary and multi-party systems, and calling for an authoritarian system in Austria.  A translation of the text of the oath:

“We want to renew Austria completely.  We want the Republic of the Heimwehr.

From every comrade we demand an unshrinking belief in the mother country, utter fervor of coopration and a passionate love of homeland.  We want to reach for power in the state and reorganize state and economy for the benefit of the entire people.

We must forget our own interests, must subordinate all the ties and demands of the parties to our objective, because we wish to serve the community of the entire German people.

We reject Western democratic parliamentarianism and the party state.  We want to replace it with the autonomy of the corporations and strong governance that will not be formed from party representatives, but from leading figures from the major corporations and the most capable and proven men of our popular movement.

We shall fight against the corruption of our people by the Marxist class struggle and the liberal-capitalist economic system.  We want to realize the autonomy of the economy on the basis of occupational groups.  We shall overcome the class struggle and establish social dignity and justice.

We want to increase the prosperity of our people through a native economy of public utility.  The state is the embodiment of the nation as a whole; its power and leadership ensure that the corporations remain integrated in the imperatives of the national community.

May every comrade feel and avow himself to be an upholder of the new German state thinking; may he be prepared to sacrifice property and blood; may he know the three powers: belief in God, his own firm will, and the word of his leaders.”

Harbin, China:  A raid by soviet authorities on the Japanese consulate at Blagovestchensk, Russia, is provoking an outraged response by Japan.  Russia says it suspected the consulate of being involved in smuggling food from Manchuria into Siberia, and raided the facility to investigate.  Japan countercharges that the allegations are false, no evidence of such smuggling was found, and that the real issue is that Russian farmers and fishermen are starving due to Russian food shortages.  Japan says 300 starving miners ransacked a railway station searching for food, and trains on the Trans-Siberian Railroad have been held up for food as well.  “The threatening atmosphere is deepening daily in the villages in the vicinity of Khabarovsk due to a shortage of food throughout Siberia and as a result the Red Army stationed at Vladivostok has been mobilized in order to cope with the situation.”  Japan dispatches its consul from Harbin to investigate the situation.  

Saturday, May 17, 1930

Florence:  Dictator Benito Mussolini, after months of relative quiet, gives a bellicose speech before 200,000 screaming fascists, emphasizing the military might of Italy and her readiness to battle her enemies.  “There are people who think they can isolate Italy, and who would not be adverse from starting war against the Italian people, even through the territory of a third power.”  It is widely understood that Mussolini refers to France, whose relations with eastern European countries, Italy believes, are intended to isolate Italy.  “Fascist Italy henceforth will be a unit so organized as to be unassailable and without mortal danger.  Though words are beautiful things, rifles, machine guns, ships, airplanes and big guns are still more beautiful.” 

The French Ambassador to Italy visits Italian Foreign Minister Dino Grandi to express his displeasure. 

Paris:  Foreign Minister Aristide Briand has presented a proposal to the 26 European countries that are members of the League of Nations, calling for a federation of European states.  Some in the U.S. press are calling the idea a “United States of Europe.”  Briand first floated the concept in a speech last year, but now has presented it, fully formed, in a “Memorandum on the Organization of a Regime of European Federal Union.”  It is a bold proposal, though not without some precedent in European history.  Some fear Italy and Germany will view it as an attempt to isolate them and expand French influence over the continent.

Berlin:  Three people are killed when communists and nazis, on their way home from various political gatherings, clash in street brawls.

New York:  Police battle a crowd of 2,000 communists when they attempt to free picketers who had been detained after ignoring a court injunction not to demonstrate.  Four are arrested.

Thursday, May 15, 1930

Heidenau, Germany:  Communists and nazis battle in the streets, injuring 25 and overwhelming the response capability of the village police force.