1932 (MONDAY)
INDIA: The British government again arrests Mohandas K. Gandhi and several Indian Nationalist leaders and declare the Indian Nationalist Party illegal. Gandhi continues to influence politics from prison, conducting "fasts until death" and demanding the extension of the franchise to the untouchables in the upcoming constitutional revisions referendum. Although the Indian government receives special powers for six months, the nationalist movement in India maintains its momentum.
MANCHURIA: With the occupation of Shanhaiguan (Shanhaikuan), the Japanese complete their military control over South Manchuria.
1935 (FRIDAY)
MIDDLE EAST: The British open a major oil pipeline between the Mosul oilfields in Iraq and the Mediterranean port of Haifa in Palestine. This route provides the British better control over Iraqi oil by complementing oil shipments through the French port of Tripoli, Lebanon.
1937 (MONDAY)
FRANCE: French television begins regular daily half-hour broadcasts at 2000-2030 hours from the Eiffel Tower.
LEBANON: The French government restores the Lebanese constitution, after it had been suspended for a number of years. .
1938 (TUESDAY)
AUSTRIA: Chancellor Burt von Schuschnigg in an interview said despite common ties with Germany Austria must preserve its historic mission as bridge between two great cultures. He says, "But we remain ourselves alone . . . to render great service to the German people as a whole."
PALESTINE: The British government appoints a new commission under Sir John Woodhead to study the boundary plans for the proposed new states in Palestine and postponed the Peel Commission partition plan. The goal of the new commission is to determine the economic and financial aspects of partitioning the mandate. The commissioners collect evidence in Palestine from April to August, although the Arabs boycott the deliberations.
UNITED KINGDOM: The first part of the British Broadcasting Company's (BBC's) plan to broadcast in foreign languages is begun today, a musical program and a news bulletin in Arabic are transmitted to the Near and Middle East.
January 4th, 1939 (WEDNESDAY)
GERMANY: The government insists on a single plan to cover exports and "Jewish Problems." The article....
The German Air Ministry circulates a top secret paper, "Preliminary technical guidelines for high-speed fighters with turbojet propulsion."
JAPAN: Tokyo. Prince KONOYE Fumimaro resigns as Prime Minister. Kiichiro Hiranuma becomes premier.
U.S.A.: President Franklin D. Roosevelt tells Congress: "We stand on our historic offer to take counsel with all other nations of the world to the end that aggression among them be terminated, that the race of armaments cease and that commerce be renewed. But the world has grown so small and weapons of attack so swift that no nation can be safe in its will to peace so long as any other single powerful nation refuses to settle its grievances at the council table." The President added: "At the very least, we can and should avoid any action, or any lack of action, which will encourage, assist, or build up an aggressor. We have learned that when we deliberately try to legislate neutrality, our neutrality laws may operate unevenly and unfairly-may actually give aid to an aggressor and deny it to the victim. The instinct of self-preservation should warn us that we ought not to let that happen any more."