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.  

Saturday, May 31, 1930

Lung Ching-Tsun (Jilin City), Manchuria:  Bands of Korean communists launch coordinated attacks on Japanese facilities here, in Yenki, and at other towns in this district on the border with Korea.  The communists burn and bomb Japanese consulates, utilities and schools, but the only casualty is an injured police officer.  Japanese consular police and Chinese troops band together to drive the attackers away.

 

Berlin:  Joseph Goebbels, nazi member of the Reichstag, is fined the equivalent of US$200 instead of getting the nine-month prison term requested by state prosecuting attorneys, for insulting President Paul von Hindenburg in an article he published in December in a nazi newspaper.  The article, titled “Is President von Hindenburg Still Alive?” excoriated Hindenburg for his “friendship with Jewish and Marxist advisors.” 

Meanwhile, more bad economic news: Paul Moldenhauer, Minister of Finance, reports to the Reichstag that government revenues are still falling, but spending is not, resulting in a projected annual deficit of US$180 million.  

Friday, May 30, 1930

Berlin:  The economic depression worsens: the government reports that production has fallen 15% below 1929, and unemployment is still on the rise.  

Thursday, May 29, 1930

Tokyo:  Admiral Takarabe Takeshi, Minister of the Navy, holds a closed-door all-day meeting with the naval members of Japan’s Supreme Military Council to explain his position in agreeing to the London Naval Treaty.  Reports of the meeting’s outcome are conflicting.

Wednesday, May 28, 1930

Rome:  Admiral Giuseppe Sirianni, Minister of the Navy, proposes a US$77 million naval budget, an 18.5% increase over last year despite the global depression.  He says the budget is necessary to meet dictator Benito Mussolini’s warship-building goals.

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.