Thursday, July 10, 1930

Paris:  In a goodwill gesture, France announces it will suspend its naval construction program until December to open the way for negotiations with Italy.  Speaking before the Foreign Relations Committee of the Chamber of Deputies, Foreign Minister Aristide Briand says, “Another war in Europe is impossible and inadmissible.” 

Wednesday, July 9, 1930

Canberra:  In a sign both of the growing economic depression and reaction to the U.S. tariff, Prime Minister James Scullin proposes an increase in import tariffs by 2%, and an income tax increase that some say will increase cost of living by $5 per person per week.  He’s dealing with a $68 million budget deficit, and blames the shortfall on the depression and a drying up credit market.

Tuesday, July 8, 1930

Tokyo:  A new complication emerges in Japan’s approval of the London Naval Treaty -- members of the Privy Council, the high-level advisory body to the Emperor, say they won’t approve the treaty until the navy’s officers do.  Considering the rate at which naval officers have been resigning in protest over the treaty, this would seem to be deal breaker.  Admiral Takarabe Takeshi, Minister of the Navy, says he thinks he can patch up the disagreement.

Rome:  Making good on its earlier commitment to increase defense spending, the government institutes a new 1.5% sales tax across the board. 

Monday, July 7, 1930: The Peasant March in Finland

Helsinki:  A mob estimated from 12- to 14,000 enters the capital at the end of what is being termed a “Peasant March” against communism.  They hold a demonstration during which parliament suspends its session, and are greeted by the new Prime Minister, Pehr Evind Svinhufvud.

Rome:  Italy publishes its official response to France’s idea for a “United States of Europe,” and the tone is not friendly, though it doesn’t reject the idea outright.  Instead, it places conditions on Italy’s participation in a union, some of which Benito Mussolini raised in an interview with a Paris newspaper July 3.

“Cancel all remaining demarcations between the conquerors and the defeated [from the World War] in favor of the establishment of conditions of absolute equality.  The fascist government is convinced that any project for a federal European union should be harmonized with the structure of the League of Nations.”  The response further says Russia and Turkey should be included in the invitation to union.  “The fascist government considers a federal union of Europe conceivable only as a union of all the states of Europe.  Otherwise the union might become a system in which one big state would be grouped with several minor states.  Therefore not coordination but secession would result, with Europe divided into contending groups of states.  We cannot divide modern civilization.  Material and moral progress have fixed intercontinental solidarity.  The League of Nations was founded on this universal solidarity.  The world of the League has only begun, having before it vast, complex and difficult work to accomplish.  It must be protected against any danger which would diminish its efficacy or weaken its authority and prestige.”  The desire to include Russia and Turkey is motivated of course by Italy’s constant desire not to let France dominate the continent.  The statement also makes a Europe-wide arms reduction a condition of Italy’s participation. 

Sunday, July 6, 1930

Lencloitre, France:  Minister of Justice Raoul Peret, in a speech to war veterans here, excoriates the German nationalist groups responsible for violence against separatists in the Rhineland last week, and stresses that France’s defensive preparations must be adequate in the event these nationalists grow stronger.

Moscow:  The communist party congress, which has been going on for days, is winding down, and today’s events reaffirm the Soviet Union’s commitment to exporting communist revolution worldwide.  Vyacheslav (V.M.) Molotov, Assistant Secretary of the party, gives a report that outlines the Communist International’s (COMINTERN) goals for the years ahead, which includes infiltrating labor unions, creating more communist cells within factories, and urging the unemployed to seek more aid from their governments, to help destabilize them.

Saturday, July 5, 1930

Berlin:  Chancellor Heinrich Bruening is reportedly considering invoking Article 48 of the German constitution – the emergency powers article -- to implement his tax proposals by emergency decree, and thus bypass parliamentary approval.  President Paul von Hindenburg earlier threatened the same.

 

Meanwhile, the federal high court overturns a decree issued by Wilhelm Frick, nazi Minister of the Interior and Education in the state of Thuringia, which had suspended publication of a newspaper Frick wished to silence.  Frick has repeatedly run afoul of federal authorities since taking office in Thuringia, and the court rebukes him sharply for this latest overstep of his authority.

 

Paris:  Irritated at the Rhineland violence after the withdrawal of French forces, especially against separatists, France suspends negotiations with Germany over the fate of the Saar region.  The negotiations had been intended to determine whether French claims on the Saar might be ended early, as with the Rhineland.  Now, unless things change again, France would continue to hold preferential rights in the Saar until 1935.

Kovel, Poland: 40 Jews are injured in attacks by gangs of hoodlums in the Jewish quarter of this city in eastern Poland.  When the Jews seek protection from city authorities, they are told there are not enough police to protect them.

Helsinki:  Anti-communist agitation continues.  Ten men sweep into the Finnish Diet building, kidnap two communist legislators, and spirit them away in two automobiles.  It’s unknown whether these men are operatives of the government, which yesterday ordered all communist members of parliament arrested.  All other communist legislators have reportedly fled for the Russian border. 

Friday, July 4, 1930

Moscow:  The soviet government exiles 24 members of the Zeire Zion Jewish organization to Siberia for alleged anti-government activities.

 

Helsinki:  Prime Minister Kyosti Kallio and his cabinet resign, as they said on July 1 that they might, in an attempt to help the country find a solution to its widespread anti-communist agitation.  Kallio is replaced by Pehr Evind Svinhufvud, an “old man” of Finnish government who was independent Finland’s first regent.  One of his first acts is to order the arrest of the 23 communist members of parliament (most of whom have already fled).

Thursday, July 3, 1930

Berlin:  The state government of Prussia, alarmed at the growing agitation by the political parties of both extremes, forbids its employees and officials from supporting or participating in activities of the nazi or communist parties.

 

Paris:  Italy’s dictator Benito Mussolini gives an interview to the Petit Parisien newspaper which seems intended to give his views on French Foreign Minister Aristide Briand’s idea for a “United States of Europe.”  Mussolini says the treaties that ended the World War need to be revised before a united Europe is considered.  Italy was never happy with the territories it received after the World War, he says, and he claims the Allies reneged on the promises they made to lure Italy into the war on their side.

 

United States:  More bad economic news -- a new report shows automobile exports declined 15.5% from April to May. 

Wednesday, July 2, 1930: Kapp Putsch Participants Pardoned

Berlin:  The Reichstag passes a bill granting amnesty for political crimes committed during the six years after the World War, except for the murder of ministers.  This will pardon participants in the Kapp Putsch, a coup attempted by nationalists and monarchists in 1920. 

Rome:  Italy responds to the U.S. Smoot-Hawley tariff with a tariff increase of its own -- on imported automobiles.  Depending on the model car, the increase can be 110 to 125%.  

Tuesday, July 1, 1930: Nazi Violence Mars Rhineland Celebrations

Germany:  Nine people are injured and more than 100 arrested in violence amidst the celebrations associated with the French evacuation of the Rhineland, most of it initiated by nazis.  In Berlin, nazis hold a dawn march shouting “Germany, wake up!” and battling communists wherever they find them.  Thousands of nazis battle police in the freed territory, using bottles, knives, whatever they can find.  Seventy are arrested at Cassel alone.  Two people are shot at Neumuenster in a battle between nazis and communists.  Shops and homes are set on fire, stores ransacked.  Much of the violence is directed at separatists, who wanted to see the Rhineland detached from Germany.  Yet the mood is still festive for most of the country.  Celebrants in the Rhineland don’t get home until 7 a.m.

Essen, Germany:  Despite the celebratory mood, bad economic news keeps pouring in -- steelworkers’ wages in much of northwestern Germany are cut due to the economic depression.

 

London:  More bad economic news -- the government’s revenues for the first quarter of the fiscal year are nearly US$11 million higher than first quarter last year . . . but expenses are higher by US $47 million.

 

New York:  Still more bad economic news -- a new report says factory employment is down 2% in the last month, bringing it to its lowest level since 1922.

 

Helsinki:  The government of Prime Minister Kyosti Kallio is reportedly considering resigning in the face of extensive anti-communist agitation and violence around the country.  The government has been closing communist newspapers and clamping down on communist propaganda, but anti-communist forces, mostly represented by the Lapua Movement, still say it’s not enough.