The Daily Worker Newspaper, June 14, 1934, Page 6

Page Six DAILY WORKER, NEW YORK, THURSDAY, JUNE 14, 1934 Daily ~<QWorker | The Senate Spurns the Vets Garena OnGkn COMMUNIST PARTY U.S.A (SECTION OF COMMUNIST METERRATIONNL? “America’s: Only Working Class Daily Newspaper” FOUNDED 1924 PUBLISHED DAILY, EXCEPT SUNDAY, BY THE COMPRODAILY PUBLISHING CO., INC., 50 E. 13th Street, New York, N. ¥. ‘Telephone: ALgonquin 4- 7954. New York, N. ¥. National ‘Daiwork, Room ton, D. C. South Wells St., Dearborn 3931 aes Room 705, Cheago, Subscription Rates: 15 cents. THURSDAY, JUNE 14, 1934 Siete Strike Action! (Continued from Page 1) propose to-call-off the strike, enter into negotiations with the steel bosses for some half-baked, mean- s “union. recognition,” without the workers ing one single concession: no higher wages, no shorter hours, no slowing down of the speed-up, in short—nothing! Such a. settlement obviously, would not be a settlement in the interests of the steel workers; it would be a settlement in the interests of the steel bosses. Such proposals must be defeated! The seven-point program: is is the issue! This is what the honest rank and file delegates must fight uncompromisingly’ for in Pittsburgh. ARL FORBECK, spokesman for the Committee of Ten, according to press reports, says the strike can be averted in one of three ways, “by an election for employees’ represe’ government .supervision.” “by the passage of the revised Wagner labor bill,” or “by conferences super- vised by President Roosevelt and no one else.” But would any of these three proposals result in the workers winning their seven basic demands which they formulated themselves” No, fellow steel workers, to accept, these proposals of Forbeck would mean the defeat of your demands. The so-called “revised Wagner bill” is not a bill to aid the workers; it aims only to prevent the workers from effectively fighting for improved conditions. It’s aim is not to aid you in winning your seven demands, but rather to aid the steel bosses in breaking your strike As for an election of employees’ representatives under government supervision, the Weirton Steel workers got this! The Budd Auto Workers got it! The workers in many industries have had govern- ment supervised elections. But in every case it has served to defeat the basic demands of the workers for improved conditions. In many cases such elections have established company unions, and the militant workers have been discriminated against. The government is controlled by the bosses; government supervision means boss super- vision. As for Roosevelt: Well, Roosevelt personally handled the auto situation as Forbeck wants him to handle steel. And what did the auto workers get? Company unions! No improvement in their conditions! No wholesale lay-offs and discrimina- tion! Steel workers, be on guard against such maneu- vers, They spell only defeat. Rely on your own strength! Strike! Stop the mills! Then, and then only, will the steel bosses listen to your demands. ‘Then only can you win your seven-point program, Decide to strike on June 16th! How Ramsey Acts HE fact that the dominant purpose of Thomas Ramsey, Business Agent of the A. F. of L. Auto Workers’ Federal Union, in the Toledo strike of the Auto- Lite plants is, and always has been, to smother and paralyze the fighting mili- tancy of the men is nowhere better re- vealed than in a statement by Ramsey himself. Writing in the Toledo Union Leader, this A. F. of L. official, whose shameful “settlement” thwarted practically all the leading demands of the strik- ers, after their wonderful fight, gives himself away as follows: “. .. T ealled Mr. Taft on the phone and in- formed him that the workers were becoming ex- tremely impatient and that I could no longer hold them incheck . . .” Learning of the open and raw discrimination against the strikers the Auto-Lite was practicing in the plants, the men were furious “Demands were immediately made from the floor,” confesses Ramsey, “that we start at once to picket the plant.” But who stopped the workers from fighting for their rights? Ramsey answers: “They were persuaded, however, [by Ram- sey] after considerable discussion to wait until Wednesday morning . Race Wednesday.comes and the men find that strike- breakers have been smuggled into the plant by the hundreds.. The men want to act. But again, who holds them back from fighting their hated class enemy, the Auto-Lite company? None other than Ramsey, who states: “This precipitated another crisis, and we found it extremely difficult to avert real trouble . | Cab is. Ramsey's conception of a “crisis” and teal trouble?” It is when the men show their fighting determination to fight for their rights. What does‘Ramsey do in all these “crises,” which are only crises for the employers, or for one who looks out for the bosses’ interests? He always gets the workers to back down, to refrain from striking any blows against the employers, wherever he can. Preaching the theory that a crumb is better than nothing, the theery that the workers had better take whatever they can get now, ratHer than fight it out determinedly, Ramsey, like oll A. F. of L. bureau- rats, like all Socialist Party top leaders, get the men to stop fighting just at the time when they have the employers. on the run. But, instead of helping the men, this policy inevitably defeats the men and robs them of all partial gains whatever. It demoralizes them, dis- sipates their forces, strengthens the employers and encourages reaction and further attacks. The strike-breaking discrimination now going on in the Auto-Lite plants is rock-ribbed proof of this. The steel workers, coming to grips with the steel twust, are hampered by exactly the same kind of A. F. of L. leadership, a leadership that stalls and stalls and stallsthe men, thus giving the steel plun- derers plenty of chance to get themselves ready. The stecl men should lear from the Toledo, Detroit and Minneapolis experiences. The steel ‘mer should form a solid battle line of all steel workers, and take the strike into their own able hands, Guard against A. F. of L. leaders* treachery! eee 1 ¢ Te defeat of the Bonus Bill by the Senate, introduced as a rider to the Silver Bill, proves once more that the major political parties are quite definitely nemies of the rank and file vets. The cynical action of the Senate only proves that the vets can win their demands through united mass struggles against both parties in Congress. Reliance on the hypocritical promises of capitalist politicians can only lead to defeat of the vets’ needs, Strenuous efforts must be made to get the Bonus Bill on the floor of Congress. Mass meetings, pro- tests, telegrams should let the Congressmen know that the vets are determined to continue the fight for the Bonus. The Farmer-Laborites who propose the amend- ment are not true friends‘of the vets, but play their own part in deceiving the men who are now being paid with oppression and starvation for their services to “their” country. As for the “liberals,” Senators like Copeland and Wagner of New York voted against the vets, To force the passage of the bill a huge mass movement is needed, led by the Veterans’ Rank and File National Committee. The Workers’ Ex-Service- men’s League must redouble its work to give this struggle leadership. The Communist Party gives its wholehearted and unqualified support to the vets in their fight to combine the forces of the working class with their fight against the Wall Street pirates who are rob- bing them of their just due. Forward to the strug- gle for the vets! Fascism Must Not Win the Youth! RAPID step forward in the further fas- cization of the youth of America was taken last week at a special conference held in Washington of bourgeois leaders in “civic, recreation and educational fields.” This conference proposed the establish- ment of a “Continuing Commission on Youth Problems,” whose main task will be to co- ordinate the various existing mass organizations controlled by the bosses, such as the Y’s, the settle- ment houses, and community centers. The keynote of the conference was expressed in the report which declared that: “A hopeless, despair- ing generation of youth is a threat to sound national development.” ‘The recommendations of the con- ference include such measures as the forcible ex- tension of school periods artificially to keep the youth from the labor market, increased work camps for both boys and girls, etc. From this it is clear that the Roosevelt govern- ment has at last taken the step, prepared by a whole series of previous developments, which will realize in the United States one of the character- istic features of developing fascism—the centrali- zation and control by the government of the mass youth organizations. This fascist tendency was clearly outlined in the resolution of the Plenum of the Executive Com- mittee of the Young Communist International which stated: “In all capitalist countries the bourgeoisie are taking a determined line for still more or- ganizationally consolidating their influence on the youth. The leadership of the mass bourgeois or- ganizations is passing from the hands of separate political parties directly to the government and is being centralized in the government apparatus.” In view of this development, the coming Seventh National Convention of the Young Communist League on June 22 assumes added significance. For one of the central tasks of this convention will be the mobilization of the youth for struggle against the swift development of tendencies for the fasciza- tion of the youth. The Young Communist League, as the best helper of the Communist Party, must and will play an enormous role in swinging the youth into the channels of revolutionary struggle against capital- ism. The Seventh National Convention of the Young Communist League, therefore, is of extreme importance as a determining factor in hammering out the program and polfey for the successful execu- tion of this task. Its preparation, deliberations and decisions must be the focus of all eyes in the revo- lutionary movement, both youth and adult. “Civilize’em With a Krag’”’ NUGLY hidden on an inside page of the New York World-Telegram on Mon- day was an amiable little “feature” item syndicated by the Scripps-Howard News- paper Alliance. 75,000 Army Rifles Gifts to Citizens was the headline. “WASHINGTON, June 11. — Congress has quietly passed and President Roosevelt has signed a law turning over to private citizens probably 75,000 or more high-powered army rifles, of an obsolete type. “Lhe Jaw converts into gifts the loan of these rifles to American Legion posts for drill- team, burial-squad, parade and similar uses, They are Krag-Jorgensons, sys model, the weapon made famous by a Filipino Insurrection soldier ballad which had the refrain: ‘Civilize ‘em with a Krag.’ “Modern gun-slings and cartridge belts were issued with the rifles, “Possibility of the guns being utilized in any domestic or internal violence, such as labor wars or the like, is discounted here.” “Congress has quietly passed the bill.” says the story. That the job was done unceremoniously is quite understandable, of course. For here we see the United States government turning over 75,000 guns to an incipient fascist army under the guise of providing them with gifts for “drill-team, burial- squad, parade and similar uses.” Sinister, indeed, is the concluding sentence of the dispatch stating that “possibility of the guns being utilized in any domestic or internal violence, such as labor wars or the like, is discounted here.” “Methinks he doth protest too much!” It is clear that the very emphasis that these guns will not be used in “labor wars” points directly to the fact that this will be its precise purpose! This incident is but additional proof of what the Daily Worker has steadily contended—that Roosevelt's New Deal is laying the basis for fascism in the United States, brutal, barbaric terror against the workers and poor farmers of the United States. Only the united front of all workers, poor farmers and people of the middle class can defeat this developing fascism. The united front must be built in every factory, in every farm locality, among the unemployed everywhere. Either this— or else the masses of America will have the spurred boot of an American Hitler on their necks, United Front | Routs French | Fascist Meet Socialists in St. Etienne Set Up Barricades | Communists, ST. ETIENNE, France, June 13.— Thousands of workers, Communists and Socialists united in a militant anti-fascist demonstration here yes- terday in this important industrial center and effectively smashed 2 fascist meeting and routed a heavy mobilization of police sent to pro- tect the fascist scum. Forty persons were injured, among whom were many police. | The fascist meeting was called by | the Croix de Feu (Cross of Fire). | When they began to assemble at a | motion picture theatre the nearby public square for blocks around was filled with factory workers shout- ing: “Down with Fascism!”, “Down | with the Doumergue government | that supports the fascist murder- ers!” “Socialist and Communists | unite in the fight against fascism!” | “Free Ernst Thaelmann!” | When the police, reinforced by | Republican Guards and the mounted | Guard Mobile, realized they could not prevent the workers from storming the moying picture the- |atre, they dispersed the fascist meeting. But this did not stop the | | | | | | | | fighting against the fascists. Street cars were overturned, barricades set up in the center of the city. fighting lasted for many hours. The Thovgn the police were able to disperse the central meeting, the workers spread throughout the city | and held dczens of united anti-fas- cist demonstrations. In many sec- tions they drove the police away. Fifty workers were arrested. Rally To Be Held ‘June 15 for World ‘Anti-Faseist Meet Irving Plaza Meeting on |Friday for Women’s Anti-War Congress | NEW YORK—A mass rally to mobilize the women of New York for support of the International Women’s Congress Against War and Fascism, convening in Paris July 28, 29 and 30, 1934, will be held in Irving Plaza at 8 p.m. Friday, June 15, | Among the speakers will be Mrs, | Ruth Alexander, writer, who has | recently returned from South Af- | Tica; Williana Burroughs, of the | Harlem Workers’ School; Rose | Wortis of the Trade Union Unity | Council; C. A. Hathaway, editor of | the Daily Worker; Noman Tallen- | tire, of the American League | Against War and Fascism; Mrs. Darling, of the Women’s Peace So- | ciety. Mrs. Charles Solander, chair- man of the New York Women's Committee Against War and Fas- cism, will be chairman. Women who have been active in organizing trade union, shop, and neighborhood anti-war committees in preparation for the July 7 Regional Conference to’be held at Irving Plaza, where the New York | delegates to Paris will be elected, will give short reports of their work. The dance group of the Nature Friends will present a special anti- fascist dance called “Kinder, Kirche | and Kuche.” The chief purpose of this rally is to mobilize new forces for the struggle against war and fascism and to organize the July 7 Regional Conference. The call for this already been issued. and individuals are urged to order copies of this call ($2 per thou- sand) from the American League Against War and Fascism, 112 E. 19th St., New York City. The New York Women’s Committee hopes that this call will be spread among shop workers, professionals, in unions, in women’s organizations, etc., especially in organizations not yet affiliated with the American League. conference has Organizations Of Course, You Want the Company Union! MOSCOW.—On the 50th birthday of Fritz Heckert, leading and active fighter of the Communist Party of Germany, the Executive Committee of the Communist International is- sued the following statement: “Comrade Fritz Keckert has just reached his 50th birthday. Ac- ary movement of the German and Central European working class, an old Spartacist, Fritz Heckert is one of the most faithful, ener- getic and fiery fighters for the cause of the working class, for the proletarian revolution. “The fascist government of Ger- many has deprived him of Ger- man citizenship and declared that he has lost his “fatherland.” But the old internationalist Fritz Heckert is a true son of the Ger- man revolutionary working class. As always, today he remains close- ly bound up with the masses of German workers. No fascist de- cree can tear Fritz Heckert from the German workers! Always in Front of Struggle “Always on the front line of the proletarian struggle, he became one of the leaders of the Commu- nist Party from the moment it was founded. He took the road from social-democracy through the Spartacus Bund to Bolshevism, the Party of Lenin and Stalin, whose banner he courageously and faithfully defends. As a member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of Germany and as a member of the Presidium of the Communist International, Fritz Heckert, as the representa- tive of the revolutionary move- ment in Germany, has taken part in many international congresses and conferences. “Fritz Heckert as always a zeal- ous fighter against reformism and social-democracy. His fight against the social-democratic trai- tors earned him the hatred of the social-democratic leaders and all renegades from Brandler to Trot- aky. “Occupying one of the most im- portant posts in the Communist Party of Germany, fighting against the fascist regime of tive for decades in the revolution- | Heckert, Communist Leader, Is Greeted on 50th Birthday and self-sacrificingly fulfills his duty as a leader of the prole- tariat’s struggle against fascism and war, against social-democracy A loyal soldier of and reaction, FRITZ HECKERT the revolution, he places all his strength and his rich store of ex- perience in the service of the Ger- man working class's cause, for the soonest possible overthrow of the fascist dictatorship and the es- tablishment of the German Soviet Republic. “On his 50th birthday we wish Fritz Heckert one thing—that for many years to come he may be able to put all his abilities at the service of the emancipation of the working class and the victory of Socialism throughout the world. (Signed) Knorin, Kuusinen, Manullsky, Dimitroff, Piatnitzky, Wa n- Ming, Bela Kun, Bronkowski, Smeral, Haaken, Losovsky, Okano, Dolores, Dengel, Hopner, Chenodanoff, Mitzkievitch, Monmousseau, Valetzki, Mac- Ilon, Smoliansky, Vassilieff, Martynoff, Buerger, Maddalena, Schwab, Hoernle, Mehring, Ste- blood, Comrade Heckert tirelessly panoff, Mif. 127 Rumanian RR. Workers Re-Tried ‘By Military Court N. Y. Delegation to Visit Consul to Demand Their Freedom NEW YORK.—In Rumania 127 railroad workers, formerly convicted and sentenced to long terms of im- | prisonment at hard labor, are now | being retried by a military court. | These workers have been impris- joned since February 17, 1933, when the Rumanian butcher government, to. smash a strike at the railroad shops at Grivita, slaughtered 500 workers and arrested hundreds. On Wednesday, June 20, the Ru- manian Workers Club and the Ru- manian Branch 4502 of the In- ternational Workers Order will send a delegate to the Rumanian con- sulate to demand the release of these workers. At the same time the delegation will deman‘ that the three Communists who were de- ported from Czecho-slovakia to Ru- mania, and who now face death penalties, be freed. World mass demonstrations and struggles forced the re-trial of the 127 railroad workers, but they are now tried by the military at Craiova. The only way these workers can be freed is by an international cam- paign demanding their release. The Rumanian Legation at Washington and the consul at 1819 Broadway |manding the freedom of these rail- | road workers and the three deported Communists. All working class or- ganizations are urged to send rep- resentatives on June 20th to the Rumanian consul to join the dele- gation to protest the terror in Ru- mania and to demand the release of the imprisoned workers. BRITAIN BUILDS 600 WAR PLANES LONDON, June 13.—Great Brit- ain will build 600 new planes, the newspapers announced here yes- terday. From 100 to 150 of the Planes should be completed this year, according to plans. Pursuit planes and bombers are the types contemplated. Rank and File Begins To Feel Starvation Program ‘OR several months, there have been struggles going on in Fas- cist Germany among the Nazi lead- ers over the S. A. (storm troops) and the Reichswehr (army). }Like every dispute in the camp of the bourgeoisie, this dispute also took the form of a struggle of various cliques. Roehm had a fight against Blomberg (commander of the Reichswehr). Goering supported Blomberg. Hitler swayed, and the Hindenburg clique fought against Roehm. And finally, after a long period of hesitation, Hitler on this question took a position against his own 8S. A. On this fight among the leading fascist thieves, the well-informed correspondent of the London “Times” reports: “The first question was the de- mand of the elder S, A. leaders who have served in the old army, for Positions as officers in the enlarged Reichswehr which Germany intends to build up, whether a disarma- ment conference takes place or not. “The leaders of the Rechswehr, however, did not want to lower the high standards of instruction which is compulsory for the officers, No matter what part they played in the S.A., former officers have no chance of re-entering the Reichs- wehr without going through ‘thor- ough courses of instruction, and Internal Struggles Shake Nazi Storm Troops ee S. A. leaders who have not | served in the Reichswehr are taken after corresponding training as re- serve officers only, in case Germany should be able openly to retain’ an army reserve. “The second question of the con- flict was whether the units of storm troopers should be taken into the Reichswehr individually or corpo- ratively. The Reichswehr refused to give up its system of careful in- dividual selection, and it seems that. Hitler has decided for the stand- point of the Reichswehr and against. his chief of staff Roehm. This is the situation today, although the leaders of the brown shirts and the ‘radicals’ in the party do not consider their defeat as final. The application of the ‘Aryan’ paragraph in the Reichswehr was a kind of beauty patch for this.” Thus writes the Times, This in- formation contains many correct things. The S. A. was a Pretorian Guard, an “elite” of the Nazis, but it has now taken in many prole- tarian, peasant, declassed, and petty bourgeois elements. So all social tensions find a sharp expres- sion in the S. A. The dissatisfac- tion, disappointment and_ revolt which have been stirring all sec- tions of the masses of the German people, penetrates into the S. A, and finds there a fertile soil. The big bourgeoisie and the junk- ers (big aristocratic land-owners) have had their complete confidence in the social and political reliability of the S, A. shaken, Exercises, parades, chauvinist incitement and promises are less and less liked by the rank and file of the S. A. And the material sacrifices, military drilling, the unheard-of debauchery of the leaders, the cynically open policy in favor of big capital, the great financial sacrifices asked from the S. A. men, the betrayal of all promises, growing hardships, and the menacing war danger make the S. A. more and more smoldering cauldron of social and political dis- satsfaction. As storm troopers are put into the factories, they feel the unprecedented exploitation, the ter- rible wage cutting, all the more be- cause in most cases they are paid only beginners’ Wages. - * | eoeginia of discipline, sabotage of the service, desertion, are becoming more and more a mass phenomenon within the S. A. In the factories, the storm troopers often join their working comrades against the Nazi factory organiza- tion, against the bosses, against the measures of the fascist dictatorship. As for the military value of the S. A. the fascist dictators have succeeded so far in training about 700,000 storm troopers to be tech- nically able to fight. But, for the time being, the majority of the S. A. is to be considered as a mili- tary troop of rather low value, de- signed to serve mainly as cannon fodder. Furthermore, there are complica- tions of foreign politics, France in- creases its pressure more and more and brings up the question of the & Hitler Building More Reliable Fascist Armed Forces military organizations of Hitler fas- cism. In order to make certain fake concessions to France, the fas- cist government would not be dis- inclined to reduce to a certain de- gree the S. A.-formations, This would also answer the necessities of the interior policy of the fascist dictatorship. The S, A. have be- come too big to be a perfectly reli- able force, and that is why the Nazis would like to make a great clean up. Hitler's confidential man in the “disarmament” question, Ribben- trop, visits the different capitals of Europe with propositions about re- ducing the S. A. Hitler prepares to clean out all “undesirable” elements from the S. A. Mussolini had twice to reorganize the fascist party from the bottom up, in order to make it a reliable weapon for the most reactionary finance capital. The fascist milice (militia), the Pretorian guard of the fascist dictatorship in Italy, never had more than 300,000 mem- bers. The Nazi storm detachments have today from two and a half to three million men. Without losing their character as an army of the fascist party, they became a mass organization reflecting all social currents. Hitler wants to try to create a smaller, but more reliable S, A. | should be flooded with protests de- | On the World Front |_— By HARRY GANNES Fascist Finances Inevitable Plunge Substitutes for Food { A Plot Gone Wrong \ ] AJOR financial difficulties. which are tearing at the economic structure of Italian and German fascism, this week reached a critical stage. The reason that fascism shows its crisis most sharply in, financial spheres is, first, becausq¢ the state budget is turned into | swine trough at which the finance capitalist swill freely. All relief and other social expenditures are cut down to benefit the big exploiters, Secondly, the internal and external sharpening of the contradictions by the fascist dictatorship evokes tre- mendous expenditures for war. On the very day that the Italian government reported a deficit in its budget of over $85,000,000, and a concealed deficit in public debts of another $90,000,000, an official state- ment was made by the Mussolini regime that two huge battleships of 35,000 tons each are to be con- structed immediately at a cost of around $90,000,000. Every day the financial abyss yawns deeper underneath fascism, In Germany, while the Nazi finance expert, Dr. Schacht, has slightly delayed inflation, the handwriting on the counting-houses of Europe | reads that inflation is inevitable soon in Germany. | “Nothing that Berlin can say, | however, will convince financial circles here that the mark is des- tined to stay on gold for many months,” says a cabled dispatch from London to the New York Herald Tribune. “The plunge may be delayed, but all portents point to its being taken ultimately. Repercussions are likely to be varied and far-reaching, and Bri- tish financial circles therefore are watching the situation with close attention.” ea ve LSO watching the impending financial collapse are the Ger- man masses. Admission of this fact comes from the Nazi sheet, “Voel- kische Beobachter.” In a recent issue this Nazi mouthpiece, which has been promising prosperity, was forced to appeal and _ threaten against a buying panic reminiscent | of the inflation days of 1923, when the people spent every available penny for goods and food, to be | stored up against famine. “A gen- eral run on goods made with foreign raw materials would give special | emphasis to foreign trade difficul- ties, and would make them twice as grave as they are,” said this paper. Another warned about “ex- aggerated drought” and starvation fears. At the same time, the Reichs- bank strictly limited all foreign payments to 50 marks monthly. Theat means still less food and less raw materials will be imported into Germany. It means more hun- ger and unemployment will come in. The German masses, even before this critical situation had been reached, were eating and wearing cism. On May 25 an official an- nouncement of the Hamburg stock- yards showed a decrease of 41 per cent in the amount of cattle de- livered. On May 20, the Berlin Shoe | Dealers Association reported that for April of this year shoe sales | fell off 8 per cent below’ last year, | This was regarded as “a favorable development of the shoe trade,” be- cause it meant the importation of less leather. asco eee ‘ACED with impending financial disaster, how do Mussolini and Hitler act? They undertake a tre- mendous offensive against the standard of living of the toiling masses, In Italy wages have been cut. Mussolini tells the masses they do not realize their ascetic abilities; that the human race is destined to reach still greater feats of self- abstinence so that capitalism can be preserved. “Premier Mussolini has just an- nounced a new deflation program involving a-reduction of the Italian standard of living,” says a wireless dispatch to the New York Times from Berlin, “and’ the Nazis feel they can go as far as Il Duce.” It becomes a sort of fascist competi- tion to see how much farther each can shove down the workers’ living standard. In these circumstances Hitler and Mussolini are going to get their heads together to see what they can hatch out for the rest of the world in the way of new imperialist war alliances. er Japanese battleships were docked at Nanking, ready to repeat the Chapei slaughter and incedniarism Japanese marines were ready to Jand. In the Hongkong district of Shanghai, Japanese armored tanks were parading the streets and the “ronins” (gangsters) were ready to begin new provocations. All pre- Saged a new attack on the Chinese people, due to the “mysterious” dis- appearance of one Kuramoto, Jape anese Consular secretary in Nan- king. After a sharp note had been dispatched from Tokio—which would have been followed with the slaugh- ter of thousands of Chinese workers and peasants—the “missing” diplo- mat was found in a Ming cemetery He was alive, but “dazed,” as the reports state. He said he disap- peared voluntarily and was going to commit suicide but lost his nerve. Had he not lost his nerve in his alleged harakiri adventure, the Jap- anese imperialists would have claimed he was murdered and thou- sands of Chinese toilers would have had to pay with their lives for it, Something seemed to have gone wrong with the Japonsze picns, Another Nakamura case (which was used as an excuse for the invasion of Manchuria) was barely averted, less than before the advent of fas- ; | \ {