EYES ON DANZIG.

Evening Star, Issue 22465, 9 October 1936, Page 8

EYES ON DANZIG.

Conquest of Danzig is the aim of the Nazis within the territory, and, without doubt, of the leaders in Berlin. Between them they made the position of the High Commissioner intolerable. Mr Sean Lester, in carrying out the duties of his office, showed moderation and common sense. Considering that the rights of minorities stood under the protection of tho League he represented, he very properly resisted the Nazi designs. Standing up for at least t,he elementary rights of citizenship which tho League status guarantees, he incurred the undying enmity of Herr Greiser, and the man who stands behind him—Herr Hitler. In the face of determined and systematic opposition it was useless for Mr Lester to attempt to carry on much longer, and the League Council has i appointed him to a responsible post in Geneva, though he has not yet been relieved of his Danzig office. The latest development is that the Council requested the Polish Government to assume the responsibility of finding a solution of the problems of Danzig, and this task has been accepted. This possibly may be a shrewd move. It has brought forth a protest from Herr Greiser and from tho Nazis’ journal in Danzig,, and an influential German paper describes it as an attempt to disturb the good relations between Germany and Poland. Those two countries are now supposed to be working under a friendly arrangement that replaces one that previously existed between Poland and France; the League Council probably hopes that Polish influence will have a restraining effect on Nazi ambitions. Danzig was made a free city in response to Poland’s demand, in the post-war arrangements, for access to tho sea, and no other harbour was available at that time. Then Poland determined to remove the disability of having no harbour of her own, and her enterprise and energy resulted in the construction of one at Gdynia, next door to Danzig, providing facilities equal to any other port in the Baltic.

Thus Poland no longer needs Danzig, or at any rate to the Poles it is not now a matter of economic life and death. It might be supposed in the circumstances that Poland would be willing to see Germany in possession of Danzig. That by no means follows, for though the territory is, and always has been, predominantly German, it has a strong Polish minority. Further, German ambitions arouse misgivings, and the point is raised that while dangers of war remain in Europe neither Germany nor any other country should bo allowed at its own sweet will to revise a treaty to which several countries are parties. Another point is that the people of Danzig are not of one mind in the matter of German control. In the recent elections tho National Socialists, despite a campaign of unprecedented terrorism, succeeded in securing only 48 per cent, of the electorate. German ambitions know no bounds. They are expressed time and time again by the Fuhrcr and his satellites. They dream of a Mittcl Europa from the Baltic to the Adriatic, entirely under German domination. A step to tho fulfilment of this ambition would bo the absorption of Danzig, on the lines of the march into the Ithincland.

Such a development would be a blow at the League of Nations, the structure of which has been severely shaken by recent events. The League guaranteed democracy and freedom to Danzig and territory in 1920. As things are at present, freedom is in grave danger of being subordinated to the insolent and aggressive demands of the Nazis, which are accompanied by terrorism and repressive measures of various kinds. Should the design succeed fresh discredit will fall on the League and a blow be given to democracy. It will also mean opening the doors to unmitigated Hitlerism and all its consequences in North-eastern Europe.