Ashburton Guardian Magna est Veritas et Prævalebit. WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 2, 1936. POLAND AND FRANCE.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 56, Issue 275, 2 September 1936, Page 4

Ashburton Guardian Magna est Veritas et Prævalebit. W EDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 2, 1936. POLAND AND FRANCE.

Poland, it is reported as a consequence of a visit to Paris of a high army official, is desirous of entering into new military guarantees with France. She is also seeking a loan for the purpose of rearmament, to which she is impelled by perturbation over the great increase in Germany s military strength. The fear entertained by Poland arises from ingrained distrust of Germany’s policy in regard to her eastern frontier, the alteration of which has been a sore point ,at Berlin ever since the Treaty of Versailles defined the "Corridor” giving Pbland access to the Baltic Sea. This fear has been intensified lately owing to the attitude of the Nazis toward the League and its Commissioner at Danzig. Germany, it is true, is pledged by a compact with Poland to preserve peace in this region, her real object being to provide a barrier against Russia. But the suspicion arises that when Herr Hitler has achieved his aim of restoring the military strength of the Reich, Russia will cease to be a restraining factor in her desire to reunite East Prussia with the rest of the Republic. Poland, with her unhappy experience of partition after partition, fears any movement that may threaten to undo the work of 1919 for the restoration of a compact nationality. 'ln recent events at Danzig, moreover, she sees possible danger of her losing the link with the seaboard, so important to the development of her foreign trade. Danzig is a potential friction-point in the political affairs of eastern Europe, as its being made a "free city” by the Treaty of Versailles plainly recognised. On the extreme north-east boundary of Poland and occupying fully half the Baltic coastline of the “Polish Corridor” that separates East Prussia from the rest of Germany, its status under the League and its obligatory service as a port to Poland have made Danzig, under this regime, an occasion of persistent offence to successive German Governments. The population of the city is preponderatGerman in origin, which explains the Nazis’ success in stirring up resentment against the League. On the other hand, the greater part of the “Corridor” was once Polish territory and its people are preponderatingly Polish. The last census showed that fully ninety per cent of the total population declared Polish to be their mothertongue. A little while ago an English writer fully conversant with the region said that “undoubtedly the Corridor to-day is even more indisputably and enthusiastically Polish, and in another ten years the proportion of Poles, with their higher birth-rate, will doubtless attain the overwhelming proportion of ninety-five per cent. Thus the spirit of nationalism, fostered by the Treaty of Versailles, urges the Poles to seek what measure of protection against possible aggression may lie in a better understanding with Franee, whose closer relationship with the Soviet offers a further sense of security, while not giving Russia any hold that might encourage her to repeat the policy that for so long subjugated a large section of the Polish people.