DANZIG MOVES

"BUTTER NOT HITLER"

APUTSCH NOT LIKELY

"Down with HitlerJ Heil butter!" Danzigers were invited to shout at the celebration of the Nazi Fuhrer's fiftieth birthday anniversary, radios Jerzy Szapiro from Danzig to the "New York Times."

The still large tanti-Nazi group distributed this new' "German greeting," printed in thousands of leaflets ridiculing Chancellor Adolf Hitler and National Socialism.1 in a rhymed "German prayer" all oiver the city, despite numerous arrests. Many posters giving the programme for the festivities were torn down daring the night. . Eight persons were arrested and charged with conspiracy to overthrow the. Nazi Government of Danzig. Among them were -two political police agents. : Uniformed Nazis from a torchlight parade clstehed with a group of workmen in the . port. Two Nazis were seriously injured. Nazis retali- " ated by smearing the windows of Polish shops with a malodorous substance. "Poles get out" was/painted on doors of a Polish school in. a Danzig suburb. NO ORDERS FROM BERLIN. Nazi Storm Troopers kept vigil all night, waiting for "orders from Berlin," which-did not arrive. The state of emergency for party units continued until noon the following day. Otherwise, quiet reigned. Nqzis I marched in honour of their Fuhrer, arranged big luncheons, held many 1 meetings, and paraded through an illuminated city which remained in- I different and apathetic. ; The Putsch in the form of a pro- j clamation of Danzig's return to the | Reich, originally announced for the j day, it was rumoured again, has been j postponed until after Chancellor Hitl-' ler's Reichstag speech. "It will not happen then," according to one well-informed neutral observer. "In the. past two years six times the return of Danzig to the Reich and in-' numerable Putsches have been prophe-/ sied, but nothing has happened." For explanation the observer pointed to a map. His argument ran thus:— Dangiz could not be defended against I the Poles, and Danzigers would notj risk occupation of their city by Polish forces massed in large numbers at all gateways. The Poles would consider any Putsch as much a casus belli as any German attempt to seize the Free City, for it is clear Danzig Nazis will do nothing without permission from .Berlin headquarters. Therefore respon-j sibility for a Putsch would remain with the Government, and the Poles would reply with immediate occupation. * Occupation could easily be carried out by the overwhelmingly large Polish forces concentrated on the borders of the Free City. Danzig could muster but-a few thousand police and Storm Troopers, which would be no match for the well-equipped regular Polish army. . COMMUNICATIONS HELD. .... Furthermore, the Poles control the important railway junction of Tzew and the bridge over the Vistula River and could enter this city by three railroads and seven roads. The Germans possess only a few secondary roads from East Prussia, but not bridges or railroads. The Poles could enter Danzig hours before the Germans in case of an outbreak. Moreover, Danzig would be an easy target for the long-range coastal guns from the Polish Peninsula of Hel on the north-west. Danzig could be occupied, or destroyed, by the Poles in a few hours. The Nazis know all this and do not wish to risk a conflict with . Poland. Their only hope, it would seem in responsible party circles, is some sort of compromise with ,Poland saving the face of Nazi leaders, who have been unable to fulfil their promises of return to the Reich. Leading Nazi opinion was accurately reflected in a special birthday issue of the "Vorposten," in which the only reference to Danzig's international position was this: "Our Gauleiter (Nazi District Leader Alfred) Forster, representing the population of a country which, against its will, must live outside the Reich, will present our wishes to the Fuhrer and will demonstrate to the world the union of this old German city with Great Germany." The "Vorposten" reproduced the scroll conferring honorary Danzig icitizenship on Herr Hitler presented by Dr. Forster in Berlin. The scroll was signed by Free City Senators, but. Ar- § thur Greiser, the Senate leader, was :f not in the delegation that went to 1 Berlin. 1