1935 - Political Events

Political Events

A plebiscite conducted by the League of Nations January 13 shows that voters in the Saar Basin prefer reunion with the German Reich 9 to 1 over union with France or continuation of rule by the League, which has administered the region since 1919. The League returns the Saar to Germany March 1.

Adolf Hitler denounces Versailles Treaty clauses providing for German disarmament, Germany reestablishes military service in violation of the treaty, Hitler creates the Lüftwaffe to give Germany a military air capability (Reich minister for air forces is Reichstag president [and Gestapo founder] Hermann Goering), but Berlin signs an agreement with London June 18 promising not to expand the German Navy to a size larger than 35 percent of the Royal Navy.

U.S. Ambassador to Italy Breckinridge Long advises President Roosevelt in February to equip "your diplomatic and consular officers in Europe with gas masks . . . I am satisfied [Mussolini] is looking forward to the certainty of war and is preparing" (see 1933). Long describes Italy's Fascist regime a few months later as "deliberate, determined, obdurate, ruthless, and vicious."

The U.S. Army Air Corps has its beginnings in the General Headquarters Air Force established at Langley Field, Va., March 1 under the command of Nashville, Tenn.-born Brig. Gen. Frank Maxwell Andrews, 51. It is the first independent U.S. strategic air force. The B-17 bomber flown in prototype July 28 by Boeing Aircraft is the first four-engine, all-metal, low-wing monoplane; called the "Flying Fortress" by journalists, the 10-seat 299 is more than 79 feet long, has a wing span of nearly 104 feet, is powered by four 1,200-horsepower Wright Cyclone engines, has a maximum speed of 287 miles per hour at 25,000 feet, can reach a ceiling of 35,600 feet, and has a range of 2,000 miles with a 5,000-pound bomb load.

France's Flandin ministry falls in May following demands that it be given near-dictatorial powers to save the collapsing franc. Pierre Laval, 51, forms a new cabinet. Socialist groups merge November 3 and form a Popular Front with communists and radical socialists to counteract agitation by reactionaries, but the government orders political leagues dissolved December 28 (see 1936).

Former Polish head of state Jozef Pilsudski dies of liver cancer at Warsaw May 12 at age 67.

The Soviet Comintern founded in 1919 responds in June to the growth of fascism abroad. It approves communist participation in "Popular" front governments with other leftists or moderates (see 1943; International Brigades, 1936).

Britain's third Baldwin ministry begins June 7 as Stanley Baldwin, now 67, succeeds Ramsay MacDonald as head of the coalition cabinet. Former field marshal Julian H. G. Byng, Viscount Byng of Vimy, has died at Thorpe Hall, Essex, June 6 at age 72, having served as governor general of Canada from 1921 to 1926 and been appointed governor general of Australia in 1930.

Labour Party founder Arthur Henderson dies at London October 20 at age 72; former Royal Navy admiral John R. Jellicoe, 1st Earl Jellico, of 1916 Battle of Jutland fame at Kensington, London, November 20 at age 75.

Czechoslovakia's first president Thomas Masaryk resigns December 14 after 17 years in office. Now 85, he is succeeded by his minister of foreign affairs Eduard Benes, 51 (see 1938).

Italian troops invade Ethiopia October 3 under the command of Marshal Pietro Badoglio, 64. He has opposed the operation but acts on orders from Benito Mussolini, who originally named Gen. Emilio De Bono, now 69, but quickly replaced De Bono as commander in chief with the more skillful Badoglio (see 1934). France has ceded part of French Somaliland to Italy and sold her shares in the Ethiopian Railway, but Mussolini has rejected further concessions offered by France and Britain in mid-August. Congress has adopted a joint resolution August 31 (the First Neutrality Act) empowering the president to declare an embargo on arms shipments to the belligerents and making it clear that U.S. citizens traveling on the ships of belligerents do so at their own risk (see 1936). Badoglio's troops seize the provincial capital Makale November 8, and the League of Nations imposes economic sanctions on Italy November 18. Sir Samuel (John Gurney) Hoare, 55, has been appointed foreign secretary June 7 but is forced to resign December 18 following denunciation of the so-called Hoare-Laval Plan, developed with French foreign minister Pierre Laval, for the partition of Ethiopia (see 1936).

Persia becomes Iran by order of Reza Shah Pahlevi, who has controlled the country since 1925, but the Persian Gulf remains the Persian Gulf.

Siam's consititutional monarch Phra Pokklao (Prajadhipok, or Rama VII) abdicates March 2 after a 10-year reign in which the Siamese have abolished absolute royal power (see 1932). Disgusted by what he sees as the rising power of the nation's military, he moves to England and is succeeded by his 10-year-old nephew, who is at school in Switzerland and will not be able to return home and assume his constitutional duties as Ananda Mahidol (Rama VIII) until 1946 (see 1938).

A Philippines constitution gains approval March 23 from President Roosevelt, who appoints Gen. Douglas MacArthur, now 55, governor of the Philippines (in large part because he fears that MacArthur may be nominated by the Republicans to challenge him in next year's presidential election). Philippines Senate president Manuel (Luis) Quezon (y Molina), 57, pushed for passage of the Tydings-McDuffie Act last year and is elected president of the new Commonwealth September 17, he appoints Gen. MacArthur as his special adviser, and he sets about reorganizing the islands' military defenses. He also fights corruption and addresses the problems of dealing with landless peasants in the countryside and developing the large (and largely unsettled) southern island of Mindanao (see 1941).

Parliament passes a new Government of India Act that gives all provinces full representative and elective governments (see 1919; 1932). The product of three Round Table Conferences at London, the measure has been crafted largely by Sir Samuel Hoare, who has been secretary of state for India since 1931; it extends the franchise to 30 million Indians, and although the viceroy and his governors retain veto powers they will not use that option under terms of a "gentlemen's agreement" with top members of the Indian National Congress. The only areas "reserved" to appointed officials are defense, foreign affairs, and revenues (see 1942).

Sen. Huey P. Long (D. La.) begins a filibuster June 12 to block a bill that would give his political opponents at Baton Rouge lucrative New Deal jobs; he reads the Constitution and the plays of Shakespeare, throws in recipes for fried oysters and Roquefort dressing, and continues for 15½ hours. Long announces his candidacy for the presidency in August but is shot to death at Baton Rouge September 8 at age 42 by physician Carl Austin Weiss, who has determined to end the dictatorial ambitions of the Kingfish. Underworld boss Frank Costello has installed slot machines by the hundreds in New Orleans with approval from Long, who dies in the arms of Nazi sympathizer Gerald L. K. Smith.

Canadian voters oust the Conservative government that took power in 1930 and reinstate the Liberal Party leadership of W. L. Mackenzie King in October. Prime Minister Richard B. Bennett had proposed a New Deal-like program in January, but his abandonment of his earlier laissez-faire policies has alienated many members of his own party and failed to arouse much public enthusiasm. King will remain prime minister until he retires in 1948.

Bolivia and Paraguay sign an armistice in their Chaco War June 12 under pressure from the United States and five Latin neighbors (see 1934). Tin-mining mogul Simon I. Patiño officially supplied arms to both sides, but he unofficially provided the Bolivian Army with more than $250 million in aid, including 15 war planes. Although better armed and better trained, the Bolivians have lost 100,000 men, including those who were shot, died of fever or snakebite in the lowland swamps and jungles, deserted, or were wounded or captured. The League of Nations and Pan-American Union were unable to avert hostilities over the disputed Gran Chaco area, even though an antiwar treaty prepared by Argentine foreign minister Carlos Saavedra Lamas, now 56, was signed by 14 Latin American nations, the United States, and Italy between October 1933 and June 1934. Saavedra Lamas has organized a mediation committee with Brazilian, Chilean, Peruvian, Uruguayan, and U.S. representatives to resolve the issues. Returning Bolivian veterans charge traditional politicians and international oil companies with having led them into the war (see 1938).

Venezuela's president Juan Vicente Gómez dies at Maracay December 18 at age 78, ending a 27-year dictatorship that has seen his country become a major oil producer (see energy, 1922). The strongman has used Venezuela's oil wealth to build public works and make his army the best equipped in South America, he has acquired farms, businesses, and entire industries to make himself probably the richest man in South America. He has used agents, spies, and terrorist tactics to keep order, and his death leaves the country without any political leader who has had no ties to the Gómez regime. But Gen. Eleazar Lopez Contreras becomes provisional president and restores order.