Chinese score a vistory in Tai'erzhuang

On April 6th, the Chinese were able to beat back the Japanese after days of fighting.

Japanese troops were cut off by Chinese troops near Tai'erzhuang. On March 29th, the Japanese troops decided to tunnel under the walls to take the city. But upon emerging, they were killed by the Chinese.

On April 6th, the Japanese tried for a frontal assault. The Chinese were able to repel the Japanese attackers. Despite China's possible inability to capitalize on the retreat by the Japanese.

The Japanese has yet to acknowledge the victory.

Prince Franz abdicates

The prince of Liechtenstein has abdicated the throne. After Anschluss in March, the Prince does not want to be on the throne should Germany take control of the small principality situated between Switzerland and Austria. He has named his third cousin Franz Josef as his successor.

Prince Franz is married to a Viennese woman named Elisabeth. His wife being a Jew has roused some anti-semitic remarks among Nazi sympathetic Liechtensteiners.

Hitler in Vienna

Der Führer Hitler arrived in Vienna yesterday to a cheering crowd of 200,000. At the Heldenplatz, Hitler proclaimed the Anschluss to the Austrian people and the German Reich. He also commented on the criticism that some nations have directed at Germany by stating "Certain foreign newspapers have said that we fell on Austria with brutal methods. I can only say: even in death they cannot stop lying. I have in the course of my political struggle won much love from my people, but when I crossed the former frontier (into Austria) there met me such a stream of love as I have never experienced. Not as tyrants have we come, but as liberators.

A Plebiscite has been set for April 10th. At that time, Austrians will officially vote on the Anschluss. This has already passed as a legislative act in the German Reich on March 13. in essence, the Austrian people will need to ratify it on April 10th.

Political leaders such as Socialist Leader Karl Renner have urged Austria to approve the plebiscite.

Voting in the Referendum that was initiated on March 11th was still counted even during the German Blumenkreig. There were pockets if the country that were only able to count the votes three days later.

National Mobilization Bill

Yesterday, the Japanese government passed the National Mobilization Bill which gives the state dictatorial powers in the Japanese economy. The legislation goes into effect on May 5th.

This amounts to the Armed Forces of Japan fleecing the wealthy families of Japan.

His Imperial Majesty's Government, under its bill, proposes to run Japan under a Planning Commission with authority as complete as that of the Soviet Union State Planning Commission, but only "if in time of war it is found necessary." Much of the shouting and desk-banging in the Diet has been in efforts to find out whether His Imperial Majesty's Government considers that Japan today is at war—for Japan has not declared war on any country—and therefore whether or not the National Mobilization Bill would be operative as soon as passed.

Chamberlain declares England may not aid France

UK Prime Minster stated in parliament yesterday that in the event that France and Germany go to war, the United Kingdom would not be bound to come to France's defense. Chamberlain also said the same thing in case of Czechoslovakia. That nation is nervous since it has a population of 3 million Germans living in the Sudetenland.

Poland makes ultimatum to Lithuania

Poland has given out an ultimatum to its eastern neighbor Lithuania to cease hostilities. In addition to this is a request to establish diplomatic relations between the two nations. Historically, Lithuania and Poland have been ruled many times as one country.

Poland has possession of Vilnius, a city of great importance to Lithuania. Lithuania since closed its border with Poland. Relations have now normalized.

Arrests

In the days following the recent Anschluss of Austria by Germany, 70,000 Austrians have been arrested. This includes recently resigned Chancellor Kurt Schuschnigg.

Secretary Hull speaks of Foreign Policy

The Secretary of State in an address at Washington, March 17, 1938, declared that the momentous question was whether the doctrine of force would once more become enthroned or whether the United States and other peaceful nations would work unceasingly to preserve law, order, morality, and justice as the bases of civilized international relations.

The Secretary said that the United States might, if it chose, turn its back on the whole problem and decline the responsibility of contributing to its solution. But he warned of what such a choice would involve. It would mean a voluntary abandonment of some of the most important things that had made us great; an abject retreat before the forces which we had consistently opposed throughout our whole national history. Our security would be menaced as other nations came to believe that through fear or unwillingness we did not propose to protect our legitimate interests abroad, but intended to abandon them at the first sign of danger. The sphere of all of our international relations would shrink until we stood practically alone among the nations, "a self-constituted hermit state". We would find it necessary to reorganize our entire social and economic structure, which would mean lower living standards, regimentation, and wide-spread economic distress.

All this, the Secretary said, would be done in order to avoid war. But, he asked, would this policy give any such assurance? He believed that reason and experience definitely pointed to the contrary. We might seek to withdraw from participation in world affairs, "but we cannot thereby withdraw from the world itself". Isolation, he declared, "is not a means to security; it is a fruitful source of insecurity".

Secretary Hull emphasized that for the sake of our own best interests we must maintain our influence in world affairs and our participation in efforts toward world progress and peace. Only by making our reasonable contribution to a firm establishment of a world order based on law "can we keep the problem of our own security in true perspective, and thus discharge our responsibility to ourselves".

Chamberlain speaks

The Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Neville Chamberlain, finally spoke on recent events in Austria. His remarks were voiced in the House of Commons. He said:

His Majesty's Government have throughout been in the closest touch with the situation. The Foreign Secretary saw the German Foreign Minister on the 10th of March and addressed to him a grave warning on the Austrian situation and upon what appeared to be the policy of the German Government in regard to it.... Late on the 11th of March our Ambassador in Berlin registered a protest in strong terms with the German Government against such use of coercion, backed by force, against an independent State in order to create a situation incompatible with its national independence.

Later he concluded:

I imagine that according to the temperament of the individual the events which are in our minds to-day will be the cause of regret, of sorrow, perhaps of indignation. They cannot be regarded by His Majesty's Government with indifference or equanimity. They are bound to have effects which cannot yet be measured. The immediate result must be to intensify the sense of uncertainty and insecurity in Europe. Unfortunately, while the policy of appeasement would lead to a relaxation of the economic pressure under which many countries are suffering to-day, what has just occurred must inevitably retard economic recovery and, indeed, increased care will be required to ensure that marked deterioration does not set in. This is not a moment for hasty decisions or for careless words. We must consider the new situation quickly, but with cool judgement... As regards our defence programmes, we have always made it clear that they were flexible and that they would have to be reviewed from time to time in the light of any development in the international situation. It would be idle to pretend that recent events do not constitute a change of the kind that we had in mind. Accordingly we have decided to make a fresh review, and in due course we shall announce what further steps we may think it necessary to take.

One may think that the Prime Minister is reading the Treaty of Versailles very liberally. Chamberlain has made reassurances toward the Czechs that Britain would not let Germany make the same steps there. Czechoslovakia has been nervous since Anshluss.

Arthur Seyss-Inquart passed legislature yesterday that reduced Austria to the Ostmark, or Eastern Mark. As of the 14th, he is no longer the Chancellor of Austria. He now has a new title that of Reichsstatthalter.

Hitler enters Austria

Hitler entered Austria at Branau Yesterday afternoon. He proceeded to arrive at the town of Linz on his way to Vienna. He was greeted by cheers at the city hall in Linz.

In response to the recent Anschluss, Robert Kauer, current President of the minority Lutheran Church in Austria, thanked Hitler. He called Hitler the "saviour of the 350,000 German Protestants in Austria and liberator from a five-year hardship".

The Vatican Newspaper blasted the Austrian bishops and declared "The solemn declaration of the Austrian bishops ... was clearly not intended to be an approval of something that was not and is not compatible with God's law". The Vatican is maintaining a position that the bishops acted without any instruction from the Holy See.

Blumenkrieg

The Austrian Legislature has voted to give the measure full affect today.

Reports that Germany's 8th Army of the Wehrmacht had no need to fire a single bullet have been confirmed. Austrians have generally celebrated the arrival of the German Army. It is being hailed as the Blumenkreig, or, the War of Flowers.

The representatives of the Holy See in Austria have had a more difficult time with this upheaval. Yesterday, March 12th, Cardinal Innitzer said "The Viennese Catholics should thank the Lord for the bloodless way this great political change has occurred, and they should pray for a great future for Austria. Needless to say, everyone should obey the orders of the new institutions." Many other Austrian bishops followed suit.

Vatican Radio was quick to respond with Cardinal Pacelli, the Vatican Secretary of State, commanded Innitzer report to Rome immediately. Reports have it that he may have to sign a statement retracting his previous statement. If so, the other bishops will have to no doubt, do the same.

So far, response from France and Great Britain has been moderate. Both France and Great Britain have filed protests against Germany's actions. These are little more than formalities. France has ignored many of Hitler's violations of the Treaty of Versailles. He has thus far exceeded the quota of 100 planes established in the treaty. A zone extending 50 km east of the Rhine River was specified in the Treaty to be demilitarized. There are to be no installations on this side of the river. On the western side of the same river, Allied troops were to remain in a zone for 15 years. Hitler has moved 3 battalions into this Demilitarized Zone in 1936.

In the United States, an article in the New York Times likened this event to Scotland and England joining centuries before.

Incident at Trasninkai, Lithuania

In the early morning hours of Friday March 11 on the demarcation line in the village of Trasninkai near Merkinė, Lithuanian border police officer Justas Lukoševičius was on a routine patrol when he heard two, then three shots. He informed his superior officer, Vaitkus, who in turn instructed Lukoševičius to investigate the matter. Upon returning to the scene, he spotted a Polish soldier running in the bushes, apparently in the direction of Polish territory. Lukoševičius called for him to halt. Instead, the Pole fired one round in his direction from the bushes. Lukoševičius returned the fire with four rounds. Six rounds were subsequently fired at Lithuanian police officers who had gathered at the scene.

A search uncovered Stanislaw Serafin, a recent recruit to the Korpus Ochrony Pogranicza (KOP - Border Defense Corps), who was lying in the bushes mortally wounded. He was brought to Trasninkai where he died later that morning.

Anschluss

Today, Austria united with Germany. Adolf Hitler desired having all German speaking peoples united in one Germany. The last time this was fact was in 1806 under the Holy Roman Empire.

The turn of events started as far back as February. On the 12th of that month, German Chancellor Hitler met with Kurt Schuschnigg, the Chancellor of Austria, in Berchtesgaden. That's Bavaria to you and me. At this meeting, the German Chancellor demanded that Austria allow full freedom for political parties and release all political prisoners, notably the Nazi ones.

Mr. Schuschnigg complied with these demands and even appointed Arthur Seyss-Inquart as Interior Minister and Edmund Glaise-Horstenau as Minister without portfolio. Both men are Nazis.

After the release of political prisoners who've not known freedom for four long years after Austria's own civil war, the Communists sided with the Austrian government. The Socialists demanded more concessions from the government before offering any support.

Schuschnigg decided to put the vote on Austrian independence to a vote. On March 9th, he set the minimum voting age at 24. The youth of the Alpine nation have been inflamed with Nazi ideology. For this referendum to pass, Schuschnigg could not have Nazi sympathizers participating.

Germany didn't take this lying down. The Ministry of Propaganda issued reports that riots were occurring in Austria and the Austrians were pleading for Germany to come in and restore order. These were false.

Hitler demanded that control of the country be handed over to the National Socialist Party by noon on the 11th. He extended the demand two hours. It mattered little. Nazis were quick to take over Vienna.

The Chancellor resigned in the evening hours of the 11th at around 7:30 PM. He told his people and the world by radio that he had to this to avoid bloodshed.

The President of Austria, Wilhelm Miklas, though, refuses to recognize Seyss-Inquart as the new Chancellor. As long as he did this, Seyss-Inquart was unable to send a telegram under the government for German troops to enter Austria.

After much frustration, Hitler and Hermann Göring, who was waiting with his troops at the border, decided to forge a telegram, at about 10 PM, allowing them to invade Austria. At midnight, after many of the government officials had been arrested and many places in Vienna were in Nazi control, Miklas conceded and decided to appoint Seyss-Inquart as Chancellor.

The German army has slipped across the border without any resistance. There have been reports that the German soldiers have been welcomed with salutes and flowers.

Japanese Yellow River Campaign

After marching from Qingdao (Tsingtao, 青島), Japanese forces finally reached the Huang (Yellow) River. Mobile Chinese forces limited Japanese control to the railway zone.

The Japanese forces have had to contend with Chinese guerillas. These guerillas have so far been underestimated.

King Carol II dissolves Parliament

Two months after a mixed election, Romania's King Carol II dissolved the parliament there. He also ended the Cuza-Goga government. Both men were highly Anti-Semitic.

Those close to the King believe that the Anti-Semitic rhetoric and newly instilled laws against Romanian Jews upset the King. He is considered a true philo-semite and has not hid his displeasure at the increasing public dislike of Jews.

A Good Offence is a Good Defence

Congress continues to debate the President's requests for more military funding to rearm the forces and get America's Army and Navy up to scratch. Secretary of State Cordell Hull took it upon himself to address Congress in a letter yesterday.

He stated categorically his opinion that the proposed naval program was needed for the defense of the United States. Referring to the desire of the people and Government of the United States to keep out of war, he said that those who, with a full sense of responsibility, were advocating this program, were doing so in the belief that its adoption would contribute to achieving this desire. Secretary Hull pointed out that the Navy, even with the proposed increases, would not be able to embark upon offensive or aggressive operations overseas.

The Secretary also declared that the proposed program did not contemplate naval cooperation with any other power in the world that the policy of the United States was to avoid both extreme internationalism and extreme isolation; that, while avoiding alliances and entangling commitments, it was advisable to confer and exchange information with other governments having common objectives and, when practicable, to proceed on parallel lines. Finally, the Secretary said that if every peaceful nation insisted on remaining aloof from every other peaceful nation and on pursuing a policy of armament limitation without reference to relative armaments, the inevitable consequences would be to encourage and even to assist nations inclined to play lawless roles.

Atrocities in Nanking

Since Japan took possesion of Naking late last year there has been word of many grizzly events in the city. Up until today, there had been nothing official.

The International Committee is a group of American, British, and German businessmen, missionaries, physicians and academics living in Nanking and led by German businessman, John Rabe. Despite the dangers involved, these men and their families have remained behind in Nanking. They are responsible for the Safety Zone. It was established in the city on November 22nd of last year. The Safety Zone, which is about the size of New York City's Central Park, was not shelled during combat.

Today, the committee forwarded 450 cases of disorder to the Japanese embassy. Among these cases are reports of bayoneted civilians and rape.

«Case 5- On the night of December 14th, there were many cases of Japanese soldiers entering houses and raping women or taking them away. This created panic in the area and hundreds of women moved into the Gingling College campus yesterday.»

«Case 10- On the night of December 15th, a number of Japanese soldiers entered the University of Nanking buildings at Tao Yuen and raped 30 women on the spot, some by six men.»

«Case 13 - December 18, 4 p.m., at No. 18 I Ho Lu, Japanese soldiers wanted a man's cigarette case and when he hesitated, one of the soldier crashed in the side of his head with a bayonet. The man is now at the University Hospital and is not expected to live.»

«Case 14 - On December 16th, seven girls (ages ranged from 16 to 21) were taken away from the Military College. Five returned. Each girl was raped six or seven times daily- reported December 18th.»

«Case 15 - There are about 540 refugess crowded in # 83 and 85 on Canton Road. (...) More than 30 women and girls have been raped. The women and children are crying all nights. Conditions inside the compound are worse than we can describe. Please give us help.»

«Case 16- A Chinese girl named Loh, who, with her mother and brother, was living in one of the Refugee Centers in the Refugee Zone, was shot through the head and killed by a Japanese soldier. The girl was 14 years old. The incident occurred near the Kuling Ssu, a noted temple on the border of the Refugee zone (...)»

«Case 19 - January 30th, about 5 p.m. Mr. Sone (of the Nanking Theological Seminary) was greeted by several hundred women pleading with him that they would not have to go home on February 4th. They said it was no use going home they might just as well be killed for staying at the camp as to be raped, robbed or killed at home. (...) One old woman 62 years old went home near Hansimen and Japanese soldiers came at night and wanted to rape her. She said she was too old. So the soldiers rammed a stick up her. But she survived to come back.»

The German Government Restructures

The German government reorganized the military and diplomatic command in Germany yesterday.

Werner von Blomberg, Minister of War, and Werner von Fritsch, Commander-in-Chief of the Wehrmacht, stepped down from office.

Chancellor Hitler announces he is personally taking over command of the German armed forces and assumed the Ministry of War portfolio . In the meantime, General Wilhelm Keitel became his representative at the Supreme Command (Oberkommando der Wehrmacht: OKW).

General Heinrich Brauschitsch became the new Wehrmacht commander-in-chief . In the Foreign Office, Joachim von Ribbentrop replaced Constantin von Neurath as the Minister of Foreign Affairs.

As a result of these personnel changes, both the army and diplomatic corps, formerly led by moderates, come under the direct control of the National Socialist Party - the Nazi Party.

Roosevelt asks Congress to spend more on Military building

President Roosevelt recommended to Congress, in a special message today, the strengthening of our national defense. The President reported with deep regret that armaments were increasing "at an unprecedented and alarming rate". He called attention to the ominous fact that at least one fourth of the world's population was involved in "merciless devastating conflict" in spite of the fact that most people in most countries wished to live at peace.

As Commander in Chief of the Army and Navy, the President deemed it his constitutional duty to report to the Congress that the national defense of the United States was, in the light of the increasing armaments of other nations, inadequate for purposes of national security and therefore required increase.

The President said that "adequate defense" meant that for the protection not only of our coasts but also of our communities far removed from the coasts, we must keep any potential enemy many hundreds of miles away from our continental limits. We could not assume, he stated, that our defense would be limited to one ocean and one coast and that the others would certainly be safe. "

Specifically and solely because of the piling up of additional land and sea armaments in other countries" the President recommended to Congress that authorizations be granted for substantial increases in military and naval armament. Included were recommendations for increasing by 20 percent the existing naval building program and for appropriations to lay down two additional battleships and two additional cruisers during 1938.

Banns on traffic in Kaiser-Wilhem Canal

Germany has banned foreign warships from the Kaiser-Wilhelm Canal today. It was effective immediately.

The Canal is located in the Schlewig-Holstein province of extreme northern Germany. The canal links the North Sea at Brunsbüttel with the Baltic Sea Kiel-Holtenau. The Canal is a boon to shipping in the the North Sea Region. It saves 460 kilometers in length of voyage for ships. Ships can avoid having to sail completely around the Jutland.

The Canal was given International Status in the Treaty of Versailles. However, Germany's Chacnellor Hitler repudiated this in 1936.