DO YOU KNOW THE HISTORY OF DANZIG?

DANZIG was part of Germany'n spoil when Austria, Russia, and Germany divided Poland between them at the end of the 18th. century. For more than 300 yearsi before that partition Danzig, on the> River Vistula, had formed part ol

the Polish kingdom, and had been her most important seaport. Germany, therefore, held it only for the 150 years preceding the end of the Great War, when the makers of the Versailles Treaty decided that, instead of handing it back to Poland or Ger-

many, they should make it, with the 750 square miles round it, a Free CityState under the control of the League of Nations. To link this Free State with Poland a strip of territory ,(the Corridor), inhabited by Poles and lying between Germany and East Prussia, was assigned to Poland, thus providing for one of President Wilson's Fourteen Points —that the new Poland should be assured a free and secure access to the

Under the Versailles Treaty Poland was given control of the foreign relations of Danzig and the administration of Customs, while the government of the Free City was to be by a Parliament of its own. The League of Nations undertook its protection and appointed a High Commissioner. Now the majority of the inhabitants of the seaport are German, and under the influence of Nazi propaganda the Danzig Parliament has become mainly Nazi. In his recent speech Herr Hitler declared that Danzig wishes to belong to Germany. Ten-year Agreement In January, 1934, Germany and Poland signed a ten-year agreement to settle by direct negotiation all questions arising between them. Poland's /confidence in Germany, however, received severe shocks in March last. The first was the seizure of Czecho-Slovakiaj the second was the taking of Memel, a rival seaport which the Germans began forthwith to fortify; and the third was a demand for a new treaty about Danzig and the Polish Corridor. Danzig was to become a German city, and a route entirely under German sovereignty was to cross the Corridor to East Prussia.

In return Poland was to have a harbour with free approach, and to keep her economic rights at Danzig, whilo the existing frontiers between the two countries would . be guaranteed. Poland had already shown a readiness to come to an agreement on the Danzig question, and before there was any non-aggression agreement with Britain had submitted an alternative plan. Herr Hitler, however, made Britain's promise to support Poland against aggression the excuse for declaring that Poland had rejected his

offer and for tearing up the Treaty he had made in 19.34. It is not true. Germany complains of encirclement, but the control of Danzig and a route across tlip Polish Corridor would effectively encircle Poland, closing its access to the sea.