BACK TO THE REICH

Wairarapa Times-Age, 26 July 1939, Page 5

BACK TO THE REICH

UNSHAKEABLE BELIEF IN HITLER

DECLARED BY NAZI LEADER IN DANZIG.

EXCHANGE OF SHOTS REPORTED ON FRONTIER.

By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright LONDON. July 24.

I n an al'l iele in I lie “ Volkischer Beobaelder,” a Berlin message reports, the Nazi leader in Danzig. Herr b'oerster. says : ‘' We ha ve an unshakeable belief that Herr Hiller will lead 40.000 Danzigers back to 1 lie Reich.

“Poland should recognise that our internal preparations, without the drafting of German soldiers, doom to failure any surprise against German Danzig."

It is officially stated in Danzig that guards on the frontier of Poland and Danzig exchanged shots in the vicinity of Renneberg.

It is alleged that a Polish reconnaissance patrol penetrated one kilometre into Danzig, and met men on outpost duty. Without warning, the Poles opened fire, retreating when the Danzigiers replied. The Danzig authorities have protested. and demand that Poland shall end frontier infringements. NAZI PROPAGANDA RUNNING ON FAMILIAR LINES. COMMENT BY THE LONDON "TIMES.” (British Official Wireless.) RUGBY, July 24. Under the heading “Familiar Tactics,” “The Times” in a leading article says: “It is clear by now that the ‘pacific’ pronouncement made in Berlin on the subject of Danzig has hardly produced the intended effect, for, in so far as it has had any consequences at all, it has only made the nations most closely concerned with the future of the Free City more than ever determined to remain keenly alert and closely united.

“The views expressed in the pronouncement naturally commend themselves to no other nation at all. They stand indeed self-condemned. For in the same official statement, a quid pro quo to be granted by German was said to be a long-term guarantee of the Polish frontiers. If Germany is not in the least likely to attack the Polish frontiers, why should a new Germany guarantee have any more value thm the old, which was given for ten years and arbitrarily withdrawn after five? “It is extraordiny 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 reaffirmation 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 realises her plan of annexing it. becaue she would know she was fighting not for Danzig, but for her own independence. “This view is wholly shared by the Government and people of this country. Britain nas made tier position quite clear and it is unchanged. This country will give its assistance to Poland in the event of a clear threat to her independence which she considers vital to resist with her national 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. "Both strategically and politically the issue reaches much further than the allegiance of the Danzigiers. They are traditionally self-governing and might well prefer, were they free to express their inmost feelings, 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 the approach."