POLAND UNEASY

Wairarapa Times-Age, 24 March 1939, Page 5

POLAND UNEASY

SURROUNDED BY GERMAN TROOPS LITHUANIA REGARDED AS NAZI PROTECTORATE. COURAGEOUS DECISIONS URGED. (Independent Cable Service.) LONDON, March 23. The seizure of Memel has increased uneasiness in Poland, which sees itself virtually surrounded on three sides by German troops, since Lithuania is now regarded merely as a German protectorate, with the independence of Latvia and Estonia also threatened. Apprehension was voiced iff Parliament by a Government deputy, M Dudzinski, who introduced a motion declaring that Poland was endangered by the emergence of the stark imperialism of Germany and demanding courageous decisions instead of a purely defensive foreign policy. Several thousand members of the Social Democratic Party demonstrated against Germany in Warsaw today, speakers denouncing the annexation of Memel, Bohemia, and Moravia as robbery. There, were cries of “Down with Germany,” and “We will never give up Danzig.” Police prevented a march to the German Embassy.

ESPIONAGE SUSPECTS SEVERAL ARRESTS MADE IN MEMEL. SEVERAL POLICE BEING ORGANISED. (Received This Day, 9.45 a.m.) MEMEL, March 23. Including a Jew several Lithuanians have been arrested. They are suspected of espionage. Herr Himmler has begun the organisation of a secret police. HITLER IN MEMEL GREETED BY HUGE CROWD. PERMANENT GARRISON LANDED. MEMEL, MARCH 23. Herr llitler went by sea to Memel to avoid the distaste of traversing the Polish Corridor. He landed at 9.30 a.m. and drove to the Theatre Square which was lined with troops. A huge crowd greeted him. It is understood that the battleship Deutschland will disembark three companies of marines and a permanent German garrison in Memel. STOPPING THE DRIVE. GREAT BRITAIN AND FRANCE DETERMINED. PARIS, March 23. The Havas agency reports from London that Mr Chamberlain, Lord Halifax, and M Bonnet easily agreed on the necessity for Britain and France to impose a break on Germany’s attempt at hegemony in Central Europe. The Agency says that M Bonnet gave a written undertaking for unrestricted French participation in whatever form of co-operation is decided on. END OF REPARATIONS HITLER ADDRESSES CROWD. •■WE DON’T WANT TO HARM , ANYONE.” (Received This Day, 11.55 a.m.) MEMEL, March 23. “Now we have substantially reached the end of the reparations,” declared Herr Hitler, addressing a crowd from a balcony in the main square. “I lead you back to the Homeland which did not forget you. Thank you for your unswerving steadfastness. A Germany has arisen which will not trust its fate to foreigners but will determine it for itself, even though it might not please the outside world. We don’t want to harm anyone but we will not tolerate harm to us. It is our oath that no other power will ever break our new community which arose from pain and need.”