PUPPET STATE

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20061, 6 October 1939, Page 7

PUPPET STATE

NAZI POLISH AIM CONTROL BY REICH BID TO WIN NOBLES FEAR OF BOLSHEVISM (Reed. Oct. 6, 9 a.m.) NEW YORK, Oct. 5. The Berlin correspondent of the New York Times, Mr. Otto D. Tolischus, says that now the liquidation of the Polish problem has been completed, the salvation of the rump of Poland, rather-than the conquest and partition of the Polish State, is expected to become the dominant point in the'German “peace offensive” as well as in the German campaign to win over at least part of the Polish population and to find a figure willing to establish a Polish puppet Government under German suzerainty and control. "This point is expected to be one of the principal arguments and inducements offered to the West in Herr Hitler’s speech in the Reichstag on Friday,” continues the correspondent. “According to well-informed forecasts, Herr Hitler will propose a status for Poland midway between a protectorate like that of Bohemia and the garrison state of Slovakia. “Thus Poland would be included within the sphere of the Reich interests as specified in the GermanRussian pact, but not in the Reich itself. Germany would be content herself with the rounding out of her 1914 borders in which everything would be Germanised to the last inhabitant.

“Whatever form is chosen, it is assumed that the rump of Poland would have even less nominal sovereignty than Slovakia. Its foreign affairs would be administered entirely by Germany. In view of the population’s bitter hatred of the conquerors and the menace of powerful Russia on Germany’s eastern flank, the German garrisons in Poland would be proportionately much larger than in Slovakia.

“For such a solution, Germany now is trying to win the support of the Polish bourgeoise and nobility who are living in terror of boishevisation being accomplished in eastern Poland with the fear that the sword, hanging and shootings will overtake them. Herr Hitler is also expected to announce that if the Western Powers accept his peace terms he will join in organising a new peace of Europe.

“Some forecasts to-night even suggest that he might undertake to join in far-reaching disarmaments and a system of collective security based on a new equilibrium among the big Povlers.”