The Guardian And Evening Star, with which is incorporated the West Coast Times WEDNESDAY, SEPT. 28, 1932. DANZIG CORRIDOR.

Hokitika Guardian, 28 September 1932, Page 4

The Guardian And Evening Star, with which is incorporated the West Coast Times WEDNESDAY, SEPT. 28, 1932. DANZIG CORRIDOR.

An interesting message in the cables on Monday stated that Mr Yeats Brown ways that Germany intends to have' the Danzig corridor, for which millions of Germans »r . 3 ready to shed their blood. As the Council of the League of Nations has provisionally been asked to deal with two disputes affecting the Free City, this miniature coiuntry’s relations with Poland are worthy of serious attention. True, the four cities, sixty-nine stjalte districts and two hundred and fifty-two rural communes, which go to make up Danzig, cover an area of only seven hundred and fifty-four square miles. Yet, as in the aninnal kingdom, tiny insects can cause irritation out of alll proportion to their size, so a. country which can hardly bdast a flag and a brass band may cause sleepless nights for a score of European Foreign Ministers. Danzig is on the sho es of the Baltic S>aa and the majority of its inhabitants are German in race and culture. Its present stab"; in due to the fact that, ■after the (beat War;, soime outlet to the sea had to bo found for the new state of Poland. A solution was found by giving Poland a nook of land

running to the Baltic, - called the “Polish Corridor” and dividing East Prussia from the rest of Germany, ltanzig stands at the end of the ‘ , oorrid/or.” By a- very aomplfoated arrangement, the Poles were to have trading and economic rights in the F tee City, which they were to use as their port. As might 'be expected, this awkward coinpiomise in a difficult situation 'ed to perpetual friction between Danzig arid Poland. In the earlier years of thi> League of Nations, hardly a. council meeting took place without one or more problems concerning Danzig coming before the "statesmen. Gradually, however, the League’s tact and patients appeared to have adjusted most of the serious differences of opinion. Now, however, there is lanother outbreak of unrest. One reason is that Poland has buijt herself a seaport called Gdynia, which is now absorbing a great deal of the trade which used to pass through Danzig. This, of course, wris not contemplated when the treaties were signed giving Poland her various right's in the Free City. Hence, Danzig complained to the League, on' the ground that Poland hns not merely o right but a duty to use the Free City ns a port. In the nature of a counterclaim Is Poland's flont,?ntlon that Pol. ish nationals are • receiving whit-mry treatment in the law courts. These eases are simply evidence of the bad blood ‘between the two countries: It is difficult for people in other continents to realise the intensity of racial antagonisms which exist in the danger-spots of Europe. Fortunately, as Was been shown on numerous occasions, the League of Nations is ready to act as a safety valve.