1990: Major proposes new Euro currency

British Chancellor John Major is proposing a new European currency which would circulate alongside existing national currencies.
Mr Major's plan, to be announced in a speech to German businessmen later, is a response to European Commission President Jacques DeLores' more radical proposal for a single currency and European bank.

The Conservative Government is sceptical about full monetary union and regards this new proposal as a way of putting forward a genuine alternative.

It is envisaged that the currency, which Mr Major calls the "hard Ecu", would be used initially by businesses and tourists, and managed by a new European monetary fund.

Although the proposal does not rule out the abolition of national currencies, it represents a more cautious substitute to Mr DeLores' plan for economic unity.


Without a doubt it's a victory for common sense


Euro-sceptic Bill Cash MP




Mr Major said: "What we're seeking to do is to provide a currency that those who wish to use it could use, either for business transactions or personal transactions, without going down the route of a single currency across the whole of Europe, which we think has enormous difficulties and enormous dangers too."

The announcement follows Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher's comments earlier this week that she did not believe a commitment to a single currency would be made in her lifetime.

Reaction from Conservative MPs was mixed.

From the Euro-sceptic wing of the party, Bill Cash MP said: "Without a doubt it's a victory for common sense, a victory for the prime minister and for the cabinet, and a victory for Britain."

But others were disappointed by the plan's caution, fearing that it might be perceived as another delaying tactic by Britain's European neighbours.

Hugh Dykes MP said: "It seems a pity that always when these proposals are coming forward we're always holding back".

French Sign Reich Truce, Rome Pact Next; British Bomb Krupp Works and Bremen; House Quickly Passes 2-Ocean Navy Bill

Nazi Terms Signed
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But Hostilities Persist as French Fly to Get Italy's Demands
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Severity Protested
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Huntziger Voices View at Close of 27-Hour Compiègne Parley
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Nazi Truce Signed; Italy's Pact Next
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By GUIDO ENDERIS
Wireless to The New York Times

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Berlin, June 22--The armistice treaty between Germany and France was signed today in the forest of Compiègne at 6:50 P.M. German Summer time [12:50 P.M. New York time]. Col. Gen. Wilhelm Keitel, Chancellor Hitler's plenipotentiary, signed for Germany and General Charles Huntziger for France.

Its contents will not be made public for the present, but it is announced that the agreement does not provide for immediate cessation of hostilities. The fighting is to end six hours after the Italian Government has notified the German High Command of the signing of an armistice treaty between Italy and France.

As the latter is now believed to be a mere formality, already agreed upon by the leaders of the Axis Powers in their discussion in Munich last Tuesday, its conclusion is expected within the next forty-eight hours. The French delegation that conferred at Compiègne also will negotiate with Italy. Such procedure, it is predicted, will end the war on the Continent early in the coming week.

Scene in Car Dramatic

The French delegation returned to Compiègne from Paris at 10 A.M. and continued its deliberations throughout the day, during which it was in constant communication with the Bordeaux government. To expedite contacts, German military authorities installed a direct telephone wire connecting the armistice car with Bordeaux.

The German radio broadcast announcing the signing of the treaty closed with the words, "We thank our Fuehrer." There was a dramatic scene in the armistice car at Compiègne before the formalities were completed. General Huntziger, in a choked voice, announced that his government had ordered him to sign.

"Before carrying out my government's order," he said, "the French delegation deems it necessary to declare that in a moment when France is compelled by fate of arms to give up the fight, she has a right to expect that the coming negotiations will be dominated by a spirit that will give two great neighboring nations a chance to live and work once more. As a soldier you will well understand the onerous moment that has now come for me to sign."

After the signatures were affixed, General Keitel requested all present to rise from their seats, and then said:

"It is honorable for the victor to do honor to the vanquished. We have risen in commemoration of those who gave their blood to their countries."

Talks With Italy Speeded

The French delegation left Compiègne for Paris tonight and is expected to take up negotiations with Italy without further delay to bring the hostilities to a quick close.

With an Italian-French armistice in imminent prospect, military activities are now expected to give way to diplomatic negotiations and it is not improbable that Germany, Italy, France and possibly also Belgium will meet in conference soon in some German city to discuss steps for an approach to honorable peace.

Meanwhile there is no indication in German official or press utterances to suggest that Germany is not grimly determined to prosecute her war on Britain with all possible speed, and this determination has received fresh impetus through uninterrupted attacks by British bombers on German objectives.

With French Channel ports now available as German air bases, raids on English coastal points also have increased in recent days and with the final liquidation of the war in France it is predicted that Chancellor Hitler will lose no time in ordering his air squadrons across the Channel.

The German press today is wholly occupied in stressing the historic significance of the new armistice of Compiegne.

"Compiègne was not selected as the scene of the present armistice merely as retaliation," says the Hamburger Fremdenblatt, "but because it is now the business of Europe to liquidate the running war that England and France have been waging against the Reich and the German people since 1914. Our aim is to achieve a genuine and lasting peace, and for this purpose it demanded a symbolic act to wipe out everything that might have kept the German and French people apart unless the spirit of Compiègne of 1918 is to be perpetuated."

A similar sentiment finds expression in the Voelkis Beobachter, which says:

"It required the forest of Compiègne to make reparation for one of the infamies of history. The very moment that the French delegation leaves Compiegne, we and with us all Germany will realize that one of the blackest days that ever befell the German people will have been deleted from the pages of history. Among other things, not only Germany but all of Europe emerges a victor from Compiègne."

Reference to a "peace of reparation," which was one of the three armistice demands specified in the preamble read to the French delegation at Compiègne yesterday, must also be interpreted as applying to Germany's demands for restitution for injustices done at Versailles. Though its phraseology is somewhat obscure, its importance is made clear in today's press comments, which leave no doubt that redress for wrongs inflicted on Germany will come up for review and revision in the coming settlement.

Reparations for those wrongs fall on the shoulders of France and Britain jointly, the press observes, although France, for the time being, must carry the burden alone. There is only one remaining foe to world peace after the armistice with France, says the Fremdenblatt, and that is "the naked and brutal power politics of Britain." "Of this the peace-loving nations of the world are fully aware," the paper adds.

French Fly to Italy

Berlin, June 22 (UP)--France signed Chancellor Hitler's terms of armistice tonight at 6:50 o'clock [12:l50 P.M. New York time] in the Forest of Compi & egrave;gne, and her emissaries hastened immediately by plane to Rome to learn Italy's price for peace.

The agreement was announced officially three hours later in Berlin and broadcast to the German people by radio. By that hour the French delegates, having placed on record their spokesman's protest against the "severity" of the German conditions, were already en route by German plane to Italy.

If no difficulties occur, it was believed here that the "cease firing" order might come some time Monday.

The plenipotentiaries agreed on French-German terms twenty-seven hours and twenty minutes after Chancellor Hitler presented his demands to the French delegates yesterday.

The armistice was signed today in the same old railroad dining coach of the Wagons Lits company where yesterday Herr Hitler received the French delegates and where twenty- two years ago Marshal Ferdinand Foch received the Germans on a similar mission.

General Charles Huntziger, the Alsatian-born, German-speaking chief of the French plenipotentiaries, signed the armistice for France--at the orders, he said, of his government. Col. Gen. Wilhelm Keitel, acting for Chancellor Hitler, signed for Germany.

Yesterday the clearing in the pleasant Compiègne forest where the emissaries met was flooded with sunshine. Today the sky grew overcast as the afternoon wore on and it was gloomy in the woods by the time the hour of signature arrived.

Huntziger Enters Protest

Before he affixed his name to Herr Hitler's terms General Huntziger, speaking slowly in a voice husky with emotion, entered a brief protest. A transcription of his words and of the proceedings at the moment of signature was broadcast to the German people over the official radio tonight. General Huntziger said:

"Before I sign this armistice at the order of the French Government I would like to make a personal statement.

"Forced by the fate of arms to give up the fight in which she engaged with both her Allies, France is forced to accept conditions whose severity must be emphasized.

"France experts in the future negotiations that Germany will be imbued with a spirit that will enable both great nations to live at peace in the future.

"I appeal to the soldiers' spirit in the hope that the French will never have cause to regret the step we are now taking."

General Keitel, speaking slowly in a deep voice, replied:

"I acknowledge your declaration that you are signing the armistice at the order of your Government. In answer to the General's personal statement, I can only reply that it is honorable for the victor to honor the vanquished."

Terms Still Withheld

It was announced that no details of the armistice terms would be made public, at least until after the agreement with Italy was reached. There was no positive assurance that the terms would be published even then.

In the old dining car--which now will be brought to Berlin at Chancellor Hitler's order-- for the final ceremony were the four French delegates, General Huntziger, Admiral Maurice Leluc, Leon Noel and Air General Jean Marie Bergeret.

Representing Germany were General Keitel, Generals Jodl and von Tippelskirch and Dr. Paul Schmidt, Foreign Office interpreter.

Herr Hitler was not at Compiègne when the final agreement was reached. He had returned to his field headquarters immediately after his brief appearance in the railroad coach yesterday.

Inspired articles in the German press carried a clear forecast of what Herr Hitler's thus far unrevealed terms to the French are designed to achieve.

Press comment indicated that France has been asked for full military capitulation--the handing over of all her armed resources on land, sea and air--and additional conditions that would guarantee Germany against any possible revival at some future date of the Anglo-French alliance.

The Angriff, vigorous exponent of Nazi doctrine, proclaimed that "Compiègne has become the end of the whole order of the economic, social and political system of the French Republic."

This newspaper indicated belief that France would not only be stripped of her military power, but also swung into the totalitarian economic and political orbit.

"After this war," it said, "France will take the first step toward a new era that the young authoritarian States of Europe have already taken."

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June 23, 1956 : NASSER ELECTED PRESIDENT:

On June 23, 1956, 99.95 percent of Egyptian voters mark their ballots
to elect Gamal Abdel Nasser as the first president of the Republic of
Egypt. Nasser, who toppled the Egyptian monarchy in 1952 in a military
coup, was the only presidential candidate on the ballot. In the same
ballot, Nasser's new constitution, under which Egypt became a
one-party socialist state with Islam as the official religion, was
approved by 99.8 percent of voters.

Gamal Abdel Nasser was born in Alexandria in 1918. As a youth, he
participated in demonstrations against British rule in Egypt. After
secondary school, he studied at a law college for several months and
then entered the Royal Military Academy. In 1938, he graduated as a
second lieutenant. While serving in the Sudan during World War II, he
helped found a secret revolutionary organization, the Free Officers,
whose members sought to overthrow the Egyptian royal family and oust
the British. In 1948, Nasser served as a major in the first
Arab-Israeli war and was wounded in action.

On July 23, 1952, Nasser led 89 other Free Officers in an army coup
that deposed the regime of King Farouk. A new government was formed by
the Nasser-led Revolutionary Command Council, of which Major General
Muhammad Naguib was the figurehead leader. In 1954, Nasser emerged
from behind the scenes, removed Naguib from power, and proclaimed
himself prime minister of Egypt. For the next two years, Nasser ruled
as an effective and popular leader and promulgated a new constitution
that made Egypt a socialist Arab state, consciously nonaligned with
the prevalent communist and democratic-capitalist systems of the Cold
War world. On June 23, 1956, Egyptian voters overwhelming approved the
new constitution and Nasser's presidency.

One month later, President Nasser faced a major crisis when the United
States and Great Britain reversed their decision to finance a high dam
on the Nile River in light of an Egyptian arms agreement with the
USSR. In response, Nasser nationalized the British and French-owned
Suez Canal, intending to use tolls to pay for his high dam project. At
the end of October 1956, Israel, Britain, and France attacked Egypt in
a joint operation. The Suez Canal was occupied, but Soviet and U.N.
pressure forced Israel, Britain, and France to withdraw, and the Suez
Canal was left in Egyptian hands in 1957.

The episode greatly enhanced Nasser's prestige in the Arab world, and
in 1958 he oversaw the unification of Egypt and Syria as the United
Arab Republic, of which he became president. He dreamed of bringing
all the Arab world into the United Arab Republic, but in 1961 Syria
withdrew from the entity following a military coup, leaving Egypt
alone. From 1962 to 1967, Egypt intervened in a civil war in Yemen on
behalf of the anti-royalists.

In 1967, increased Arab-Israeli tension led Egypt to mobilize its
forces and demand the withdrawal of U.N. peacekeepers from Egypt's
Sinai Peninsula. Egypt and five other Arab nations prepared for a
united strike against Israel, but Israel preempted the attack,
beginning the Six-Day War with the destruction of Egypt's air force on
June 5. Egypt and the other Arab belligerents were decisively
defeated, and Israeli forces captured all the Sinai and crossed the
Suez Canal. In the aftermath of the military disaster, Nasser
attempted to resign, but popular demonstrations and a vote of
confidence by the Egyptian National Assembly persuaded him to remain
in office. After the Six-Day War, Nasser accepted greater Soviet
military and economic aid, compromising Egypt's status as a
"nonaligned" state, such as Josip Broz Tito's Yugoslavia or Jawaharlal
Nehru's India.

In July 1970, the Aswan High Dam was completed with Soviet assistance,
providing a major boost to the Egyptian economy. Two months later,
Nasser died of a heart attack in Cairo. He was succeeded by Anwar
el-Sadat, a fellow Free Officer. Despite his military defeats, Nasser
was a consistently popular leader during his 18 years in power. His
economic policies and land reforms improved the quality of life for
many Egyptians, and women were granted many rights during his tenure.
His ascendance ended 2,300 years of rule by foreigners, and his
independent policies won him respect not just in Egypt but throughout
the world.

June 24 1864:

Colorado Governor John Evans warns that all peaceful Indians in the region must report to the Sand Creek reservation or risk being attacked,
creating the conditions that will lead to the infamous Sand Creek Massacre.

Evans' offer of sanctuary was at best halfhearted.
His primary goal in 1864 was to eliminate all Native American activity in eastern Colorado Territory,
an accomplishment he hoped would increase his popularity and eventually win him a U.S. Senate seat.
Immediately after ordering the peaceful Indians to the reservation, Evans issued a second proclamation that invited white settlers to indiscriminately "kill and destroy all...hostile Indians."
At the same time, Evans began creating a temporary 100-day militia force to wage war on the Indians.
He placed the new regiment under the command of Colonel John Chivington, another ambitious man who hoped to gain high political office by fighting Indians.

The Sioux, Cheyenne, and Arapahoe Indians of eastern Colorado were unaware of these duplicitous political maneuverings.
Although some bands had violently resisted white settlers in years past,
by the autumn of 1864 many Indians were becoming more receptive to Cheyenne Chief Black Kettle's argument that they must make peace.
Black Kettle had recently returned from a visit to Washington, D.C., where President Abraham Lincoln had given him a huge American flag of which Black Kettle was very proud.
He had seen the vast numbers of the white people and their powerful machines.
The Indians, Black Kettle argued, must make peace or be crushed.

When word of Governor Evans' June 24 offer of sanctuary reached the Indians, however, most of the Indians remained distrustful and were unwilling to give up the fight.
Only Black Kettle and a few lesser chiefs took Evans up on his offer of amnesty.
In truth, Evans and Chivington were reluctant to see hostilities further abate before they had won a glorious victory,
but they grudgingly promised Black Kettle his people would be safe if they came to Fort Lyon in eastern Colorado.
In November 1864, the Indians reported to the fort as requested.
Major Edward Wynkoop, the commanding federal officer, told Black Kettle to settle his band about 40 miles away on Sand Creek,
where he promised they would be safe.

Wynkoop, however, could not control John Chivington.
By November, the 100-day enlistment of the soldiers in his Colorado militia was nearly up, and Chivington had seen no action.
His political stock was rapidly falling, and he seems to have become almost insane in his desire to kill Indians.
"I long to be wading in gore!" he is said to have proclaimed at a dinner party.
In this demented state, Chivington apparently concluded that it did not matter whether he killed peaceful or hostile Indians.
In his mind, Black Kettle's village on Sand Creek became a legitimate and easy target.

At daybreak on November 29, 1864, Chivington led 700 men, many of them drunk, in a savage assault on Black Kettle's peaceful village.
Most of the Cheyenne warriors were away hunting.
In the awful hours that followed, Chivington and his men brutally slaughtered 105 women and children and killed 28 men.
The soldiers scalped and mutilated the corpses, carrying body parts back to display in Denver as trophies.
Amazingly, Black Kettle and a number of other Cheyenne managed to escape.

In the following months, the nation learned of Chivington's treachery at Sand Creek, and many Americans reacted with horror and disgust.
By then, Chivington and his soldiers had left the military and were beyond reach of a court-martial.
Chivington's political ambitions, however, were ruined, and he spent the rest of his inconsequential life wandering the West.
The scandal over Sand Creek also forced Evans to resign and dashed his hopes of holding political office.
Evans did, however, go on to a successful and lucrative career building and operating Colorado railroads.

June 25 1876:

Determined to resist the efforts of the U.S. Army to force them onto reservations,
Indians under the leadership of Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse wipe out Lieutenant Colonel George Custer and much of his 7th Cavalry at the Battle of the Little Big Horn.

Sioux Chiefs Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse had been successfully resisting American efforts to confine their people to reservations for more than a decade.
Although both chiefs wanted nothing more than to be left alone to pursue their traditional ways, the growing tide of white settlers invading their lands inevitably led to violent confrontations.
Increasingly, the Sioux and Cheyenne who did try to cooperate with the U.S. government discovered they were rewarded only with broken promises and marginal reservation lands.
In 1875, after the U.S. Army blatantly ignored treaty provisions and invaded the sacred Black Hills,
many formerly cooperative Sioux and Cheyenne abandoned their reservations to join Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse in Montana.
They would not return without a fight.