NAZIS' “PACIFIC” AIM

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 19999, 26 July 1939, Page 5

NAZIS' “PACIFIC” AIM

FUTURE OF DANZIG DOUBTS OF EFFECTS (British Official Wireless.) Reed. 9 a.m. RUGBY, July 25. Under tile heading “Familiar Tactics,” The Times, in a leading article, says it is clear by now that tile “pacific” pronouncement made in Berlin or: the subject of Danzig iias hardly produced the intended effect, for, insofar as it has had any consequences at all, it has only made the nations most closely concerned with the future of the Free City mors than even determined to remain keenly alert ana closely united. “The views expressed in. the pronouncement naturally commend themselves to no other nation at all,” says The Times. “They stand, indeed, serfcondemned. For, in the same official statement, the quid pro quo 1c oe granted by Germany was said to be a long-term guarantee of Polish frontiers. For, if Germany is not in the least likely to attack Polish frontiers, why should the new German guarantee have any more value man tne old, which was-given-for UJ years and arbitrarily withdrawn after five?

“It is extraordinary in the propagandists of Berlin to suppose that their neighbours, after all that has happened, will pay more attention to words than to deeds.

“In Warsaw the answer is a calm re-afflrmation of the attitude which, by now, has become axiomatic. While the Polish Government is willing to settle by peaceful methods outstanding questions connected with Danzig, that country would at once be forced to resort to arms if Germany realised her plan of annexing it, because she would know she was fighting not for Danzig but for her own independence. Position Quite Clear “This view is wholly shared by the Government and the people of this country. Britain has made her position quite clear, and it is unchanged. This country will give its assistance th Poland in the event of a clear threat to her independence, which she considers it vital to resist with henational forces. “Britain is determined, and at any moment ready, to stand by Poland, not simply for the sake of the actual future of the seaport but because, if it were forcibly seized and militarised by Germany, it would place Poland, first economically and then politically, at the mercy of the Reich. “Strategically and politically, the issue reaches much further than the allegiance of Danzigers. They are traditionally self-governing and might well prefer, were they free to express their inmost feeling, to be left with the status and constitution allotted and willingly adopted by themselves after the war. However that may be, the Free City was then demilitarised. Fortified, and in German hands, it would tip the balance of sea-power in the Baltic in favour of Germany, and on the land side command approach.