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.

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.