A FREE CITY.

DESTINY OP DANZIG,

LEAGUE OF NATIONS RULE,

HIGH COMMISSIONERS’ DUTIES,

• eace Treaty with Germany havmg been ratified, Danzig passes under the protection of the League of Nations the Council of which will shortly appoint a High Commissioner. The action of Mr Lloyd George in refusing to allow the Poles to annex to then State the. seaport of Danzig was one of the wisest and jus test, as it was one of the boldest of his decisions (writes W. H. Dawson in the “Manchester Guardian”). The conversion of Danzig into an independent Free State, or Free City, as the Treaty of V ersailles prefers it, was by no means an ideal arrangement, as those who live longest may learn best; hut a compromise being inevitable, this was probably the most feasible and satisfactory in the existing circumstances. Danzig has long occupied a high place among German municipalities in point of area, but the Treaty increases both its area and its population. The Free State will embrace a territory of 750 square miles and a population of between 300,000 and 350,000, of which about one-half falls to the town. For purpose of comparison it may be noted that the area of Hamburg, the largestof the German Free Cities, is only 160 square miles, though its population exceeds a million.

In constituting Danzig a Free City, the Paris Conference placed it under the protection of the League of Nations and it will now be the duty of the Council of the League to appoint a High Commissioner, who will represent it and permanently reside on the spot. The functions of this official will be very important, and upon the wisdom and discretion with which they are discharged the success of this experiment in State-making will largely depend. The general scope of his jurisdiction is set forth in article 103 of the Treaty of Versailles, which provides that a Constitution for Danzig shall be drawn up by the Free City’s ruly appointed representatives in agreement with tha High Commissioner, which Constitution shall likewise be guaranteed by the League of Nations - and that the High Commissioner shall be entrusted with the duty of “dealing in the first instance with all differences arising between Poland and the Free City of Danzig in regard to this Treaty or any arrangement or arrangements made thereunder.”

RELATIONS WITH PRUSSIA AND POLAND.

The impending change in Danzig’s political status will be far-reaching in its effects. Its severance from Prussia, of whose province West Prussia it has been the capital since 1878, implies the abrupt rupture of numberless ties and relations, administrative, political, commercial, and intellectual, and the resulting readjustments will require not only a thorough knowledge of the intricacies of the German system of political and local government, but statesmanlike judgment of a high or- 1 der. The problem with which the High Commissioner will have to deal will bo further complicated by the fact that Danzig’s future independence does not exclude a large measure of Polish interference and control.

By the Treaty of Versailles the city State is to fall within the Customs area of Poland; it is required to establish a free area in the port, and to ensure to Poland “without any restrictions, the free use and service of all waterways, docks, basins, wharves, and other works within the territory of the Free City, necessary for Polish imports and exportsmeasures are to be taken to ensure to Poland the control and administration of the Vistula, and the whole railway system (other than such tramways and other railways as serve primarily the needs of the Free City), and of postal, telephonic, and telegraphic communication between Poland and the port -of Danzig, to ensure to Poland the right to develop and improve the waterways, docks, basins, wharves, railways and other means of communication mentioned above, to provide against any discrimination with the Free City to the detriment of citizens of Poland and other persons of Polish origin and speech, and to provide that the conduct of the foreign relations of the Free City as well as the diplomatic rotection of its citizens when abroad, ■'’.nil be undertaken by the Polish ;.:r. eminent.