1935 (SUNDAY)
ITALY: The government rejects the League of Nations committee's plans for settlement of the Italo-Ethiopian dispute stating, "The Committee of Five has not taken into consideration the specific charges brought by the Italian Government against Ethiopia to the effect that the latter has not fulfilled the obligations which she assumed at the time of her joining the League. No whether Ethiopia is still worthy to belong to the League, when she has not fulfilled those obligations and has openly violated others."
1937 (WEDNESDAY)
UNITED STATES: The government protests the bombing of Nanking, China, to Japan stating, ". . . any general bombing of an extensive area wherein there resides a large populace engaged in peaceful pursuits is unwarranted and contrary to principles of law and of humanity. Moreover, in the present instance the period allowed for withdrawal is inadequate, and, in view of the wide area aver which Japanese bombing operations have prevailed, there can be no assurance that even in areas to which American nationals and noncombatants might withdraw they would be secure . . . experience has shown that, when and where aerial bombing operations are engaged in, no amount of solicitude on the part of the authorities responsible therefor is effective toward insuring the safety of any persons or any property within the area of such operations . . . these operations almost invariably result in extensive destruction of noncombatant life and non-military, establishments."
1938 (THURSDAY)
CHINA: The Japanese government creates the United Council of China at Beijing as the first step to overthrowing Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek and the Nationalist Chinese government. Under the Japanese plan, China would become a Japanese protectorate as part of the "New Order" in the Far East.
CZECHOSLOVAKIA: The government of Czech Prime Minister Milan Hodza government resigns and General Jan Sirovy, a popular military leader, forms a new ministry and mobilizes the military.
GERMANY: British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain returns to Germany to meet with Chancellor Adolf Hitler at Godesberg to discuss the Czechoslovak government's concessions. Chancellor Hitler issues a new set of demands which include the immediate surrender of predominantly German regions of Czechoslovakia without removal or destruction of military and economic materials and plebiscites, under Czechoslovak-German or international supervision, in areas with large German minorities by 25 November. Chamberlain considers these demands unacceptable and an unwarranted expansion of the original German demands.
JAPAN: The government refuses the League of Nations invitation to settle her dispute with China.
POLAND: Polish troops concentrated on Czechoslovakian frontier.
SPAIN: The International Brigades withdraw from Spain.
September 22nd, 1939 (FRIDAY)
UNITED KINGDOM:Petrol rationing is introduced.
Members of the Allied Supreme War Council met today at a secret rendezvous in Hove, Sussex. They include Chamberlain with Lord Halifax and Lord Chatfield (the minister for co-ordination of defence) and Daladier with General Gamelin, Admiral Darlan and M Dautry. A communique issued afterwards said that the Allied leaders discussed supplies of munitions and reached "complete agreement" on plans for the future conduct of the war. Though the meeting was supposed to be secret a large crowd gathered outside the building and when Mr Chamberlain left he was loudly cheered. A woman broke through the police cordon and threw a bunch of flowers at him.
Road accidents after dark have trebled in the three weeks since the blackout was introduced, according to the Metropolitan Police Commissioner. Figures have not been issued but there have been many fatalities and injuries because of the total lack of street lighting and the extinguishing of car headlights. Coroners have commented that motorists that hug the white lines in the middle of the road are bound to have accidents and have called for kerbs to be painted white. Magistrates courts have been packed with cases of blackout infringement by flashing torches and striking matches. Small fines are usual, but some offenders have turned aggressive when ordered to "put the light out!" [Yes Mr. Hodges!] A London chambermaid who attacked a policeman with a poker, saying "Who are you ordering about?" got six months hard labour from Clerkenwell court. A girl who flashed her torch in Policemen's faces, saying "It's better than bumping into people", was given a month by Wisbech magistrates. Pedestrians are injuring themselves by walking into lampposts and several have fallen into canals and drowned. They are now to be allowed to carry torches provided that these are obscured by two thicknesses of tissue paper and pointed downwards. People are being urged to "wear something white". "Pinpoint" street lighting is to be introduced at road junctions, and masks for car headlamps with louvred slots are being designed. Railway carriages, hitherto pitch black, are being fitted with dim blue bulbs. The only beneficiaries have been burglars and courting couples.
FRANCE: The US freighter SS Syros is detained.
GERMANY: Mystery surrounds the death of Baron Werner von Fritsch, the former army commander sacked by Hitler in 1938. The official statement says that he was hit by machine gun fire while visiting the regiment of which he is honorary colonel near Warsaw. But there were no other reports of fighting in that part of the front.
The submarine U-30 returns to Wilhelmshaven and her commanding officer advises Admiral Raeder, Commander-in-Chief of the German Navy, that he torpedoed and sank the British passenger ship RMS Athenia on 4 September.
POLAND: Russian troops take Bialystok and meet German troops east of the Bug and San rivers.
Warsaw: The pumping station is destroyed, the water mains now sundered in many places; the Poles are struggling to put out indendiary bombs with sand, but fire fighters on the rooftops are strafed by German aircraft.
Brest: After spending three days besieging the city to capture it five days ago, Guderian hands over the Citadel of Brest to the commander of the advancing Soviet Forces, (Brigadier General Krivochin), by the terms of demarcation and cease-fire agreed to by both Germany and the Soviet Union before the campaign began.
In his memoir, Guderian shows his disdain for diplomats and politicians alike, barely disguising his contempt for their ineptitude in such matters, saying : "It seems unlikely that any soldier was present when the agreement about demarcation was begin drawn up." (95)(Russ Folsom)
Polish forces fighting the invading Red Army surrender at Lvov (217,000 prisoners). The NKVD begins rounding up thousands of Polish officers and deporting them to the Soviet Union where they will be liquidated a year later in the forest of Katyn near Smolensk.
ROMANIA: Armand Calinescu, the prime minister was assassinated by members of the pro-Nazi Iron Guard who blocked the path of his car with a wooden cart and shot him and his bodyguards. The assassins then shot their way into the radio station and broadcast a proclamation claiming "the death sentence on Calinescu has been executed". They were then overpowered and taken to the place of the assassination where, watched by a great crowd, they were shot. The bodies will lie there for 24 hours.
Four hundred pro-Nazi Iron Guards are murdered by government death squads and their bodies left at the country's crossroads as a warning to others.
CANADA: The government sets up a censorship bureau under the War Measures Act; to examine all political speeches.
U.S.A.: Two motion pictures are
released.
* The romantic drama "Intermezzo," directed by Gregory Ratoff,
stars Leslie Howard, Ingrid Bergman (her first English speaking role) and
Cecil Kellaway. The plot has a concert violinist (Howard) leaving his wife
and running off with his daughter's piano teacher (Bergman). The film is
nominated for two technical Academy Awards.
* The drama "The Light Ahead," directed by Edgar G. Ulmer and
starring David Opatoshu. The plot involves two young but poor lovers in a
small town in Russia in the 1880s who are helped by a wise old bookseller.
PANAMA: The Pan American Conference between representatives of the American republics (excluding Canada) begins. The conference ends on 3 October withe the announcement of the establishment of a "safety zone" around the Western Hemisphere in an attempt to isolate the Americas from the world war. The waters surrounding the Western Hemisphere for a distance of 300 miles (483 kilometers) from shore and as far north as Canada constituted "sea safety zones." No hostile actions is to take place in these zones by non-American belligerents. The delegates at the conference also adopted a General Declaration of Neutrality of the American republics.