In the
same way as the Board of Directors of Rotary international issues
charters, so it can revoke or cancel charters where for specific
reasons, any club does not, or can not, operate within the accepted
rules and style of a Rotary Club. Most frequently this has occurred in
countries where a totalitarian regime has forbidden meetings of Rotary
and similar clubs.
Thus,
"in July 1936 almost immediately after the outbreak of the Spanish Civil
War, the Rotary Clubs in that country ceased to operate" (Board minutes
January 1940). At first, the Board of Directors did nothing directly
about this but at their meeting in mid-July 1936 the Board
recorded, that, "It appears that there are or may be occasions when the
board would be fully justified in canceling the charter of a club in the
ENAEM region **. Such cancellations should be made, of course, with the
same due deliberation that has always characterized the procedure of the
board in such instances." At this meeting, the members of the board
resident in the region were authorized to act in canceling club
charters, subject to a unanimous vote of those members.
In
practice, RI ceased to maintain contact with the 28 Spanish clubs
although still counting them among their total of clubs in the world.
However, following a report in June 1939 by RI President Maurice
Duperrey, 1937-38, the cancellation of Spanish charters was agreed to,
and by a decision of the full board in January 1940, effective
immediately, the 2 in the Canaries and 24 in Spain, and the Tetuan club
in Spanish Morocco had their membership officially terminated. At the
same time, the general "secretary was released from any further
obligation to obtain the charters issued to these clubs".
It was
also possible for clubs to resign from Rotary International upon the
return of their certificate of membership to the General Secretary of
RI. In Germany, the National Socialist Party (the Nazi party) decreed
that membership of the party was not compatible with membership of a
Rotary club, and by December 31, 1937, party members had to withdraw
from Rotary. As a result, all the clubs in Germany and in Danzig
resigned and officially disbanded, except for four; Gorlitz, Liegnitz,
Heilbronn and Garmisch, none of which returned their charters. Although
they did not actually exist, they remained nominally on the records of
RI. By contrast, a similar situation occurred in Austria following the
country's occupation by Germany in 1938, where four clubs failed to
surrender their charters. These were Innsbruck, Vienna, Villach and
Wiener-Neustadt. However, a Board meeting in June 1938 terminated their
membership anyway!
In
January 1940, the Board officially terminated the membership of the 39
clubs in Czechoslovakia. Some clubs had effectively ceased to exist
after September 1938, and after the occupation of Bohemia and Moravia in
March 1939, all the others closed. The Board recognized this at their
meeting in June 1939.
The
pattern was continually repeated elsewhere, as the German war machine
rolled across Europe. In January 1941, the Board recognized the
dissolution of the clubs in Estonia (3), Latvia (2), Lithuania (2),
Poland (10), Luxembourg (1), Norway and the Netherlands (34). It also
meant writing off various payments for goods supplied or per capita
taxes due from these closed clubs. In June 1941 following a law passed
that country in January 1941, the seven clubs in Bulgaria had their
charters cancelled and one year later those in Belgium, Yugoslavia,
Greece, Belgium and Roumania followed suit. The effect of all these
closures led to some districts being removed from the list and the
boundaries of others withdrawn. |
It was
not just the Germans who were repressing Rotary. In Italy the Fascist
government of Mussolini also took action against Rotary and in January
1939, the Board accepted that District 46, covering Italy, no longer had
any active clubs in it and consequently the number was voided.
Next
to go was Hungary where most clubs had already closed by the out break
of the war but three, Budapest, Pecs and Szeged, had continued to meet.
Towards the end of 1941, Szeged stopped functioning, Budapest decided to
suspend activities for a year and in view of the situation, the District
Governor had resigned his office. By a meeting in June 1942, the Board
accepted the position and District 82 and the clubs in it were struck
off the list.
While
this was going on in Europe, there were problems for Rotary in the Far
East. Even before Pearl Harbor, Japanese activities in China had led to
"the advisory committees in Districts 70, 71 and 72 (Japan and the
Rotary clubs of Dairen, Pusan, Harbin., Heijyo, Keijo, Mukden and Taikyu)
making formal announcements of the disbandment of the Rotary Clubs in
the territory comprising thse districts." (Board minutes January 1941).
Of the 48 clubs involved, 31 returned their charters and the remaining
17 were reported to be either lost or destroyed. The Board "with deep
regret" deleted the three districts and their constituent clubs from the
lists. Some Japanese clubs did continue informal meetings throughout the
war years.
As
happened in Europe with German occupation, the advance of the Japanese
armies led to a Board meeting in January 1944 at which the members
recognized the position in the Far East. Three more districts, 79, 80
and 81, no longer had any functioning clubs and "that there was no
prospect of their reorganizing or resuming activity in the near future."
(Board minutes). As a result, the Board terminated the membership of
clubs in Borneo, Celebes, Java, Sumatra, the Federated Malay States,
Sarawak, the Straits Settlements, Thailand, and The Philippines.
Additionally the Board recognized that because of Japanese occupation,
four clubs in Burma and a further sixteen in China were no longer able
to function as well as ones in Hong Kong and Guam. All were to be
deleted from lists of Rotary International clubs. As before, this also
meant writing off various payments for goods supplied or per capita
taxes due from these closed clubs.
At the
same meeting in January 1944, it was also accepted that all the clubs in
that part of France, which had been occupied by the Germans, as opposed
to that part which had been under Vichy control, were no longer
operative. The board listed 47 such clubs.
There
is one curious omission from these lists of wartime closures. The
Germans also occupied the Channel Islands and the clubs there, which
were visited by Paul Harris in 1937, were unable to continue meetings
until the Germans left the islands.
See RC Jersey
They
were the only clubs in RIBI so affected.
**ENAEM: European,
North African and Eastern Mediterranean Region of Rotary international
Basil Lewis Rotary Global History 16 March 2003
Updated for Jersey, February 2009
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