The Akaroa Mail FRIDAY, JUNE 23, 1939. THE FATE OF DANZIG

Akaroa Mail and Banks Peninsula Advertiser, Volume LXIII, Issue 2486, 23 June 1939, Page 2

The Akaroa Mail FRIDAY, JUNE 23, 1939. THE FATE OF DANZIG

A T the present time there are a number oJ' problems in the world whose solulion is being watched with interest and it can be said without contradiction that there has seldom been a time in the known history of man when world affairs have Veen so bristling with interest and alarms. The position on the Polish border and the desire oi ! Germany to acquire Danzig and b slice of Poland are two incidents which are much in peoples' minds. Germany wants to acquire this territory without resorting to open force and she wants to blame the Democratic Powers for any trouble that may ensue and make them unpopular with Poland. Writing in the K-Il News-Letter -Service Stephen K : ng-Ilall the well known authority on World Affairs who visited Danzig late in May writes as follows on June 2nd: — "1 have begun this letter with some remarks about a possible attack by the Nazis on Poland because this is the contingency most in people's minds at the moment. It was the danger of such an attack, particularly on Dait/ig which caused the British Government hastily to conclude an alliance with Poland, and to follow up this alliance by trying to arrange the Anglo-Russian-French pact which was a military necessity if Poland (and Rumania j were to be protected. "In Germany at the present time a war with Poland would not be at all unpopular with the people IF they felt sure that Poland would .fight alone. That IF is at the heart of the whole business. '' There is only one man in Germany who can speak with authority and that is the Fuehrer, and his authority is governed in its turn by instincts and intuitions rather than by logic. But there are people in Germany whose business it is to reflect what the Fuehrer wishes the world to think he is thuiking, and others who are paid to estimate what he is thinking. I have talked with these reflectors and estimators and they agreed in so far as they told me: (1) Danzig and the Corridor up to the pre-1919 German frontier (an area of 17,800 square miles) will come back to the Reich. (2) This will be achieved without a Great War. "The ordinary man in the street in Germany does not pretend to know how Hitler will get hold of Danzig without a Great War. He is at present, in the frame of mind of a spectator at a, conjuring- performance, who knows that the magician will produce the rabbit out of the hat. He-has faith. The "high-ups" can not only explain the trick but are preparing for its performance. "The explanation is as follows. When the moment is ripe, and this may not be until there have been a number of incidents on the explosive German-Polish frontier, the Volkstag at Danzig, which is a 98 per cent Nazi body, will "spontaneously declare" that it wills itself into the Reich. This

demonstration may perhaps coincide with, a courtesy visit of German men-of-war to.the. Free City of Danzig. Hitler will note and welcome this gesture. He will not demand the withdrawal of the Polish authorities in Danzig, nor will he send troops into the city. He will not need to do so because (a) lie is a man of peace—he has said so, "and personally I think he often believes it; (b) the Danzigers can in a variety of ways render the Polish representatives as helpless as were the Mikados in the days of the Shogunate in Japan (pre-1853) ; (e) the Danzigers will raise their own internal army and call it the local police. This is already happening, since arms are being run into Dan-, zig from East Prussia nearly every night, and by a recent law, every Danziger between the age of 18 and 25 .'s liable for service in the polioc . i -aw hundreds of these nice ooh.iiL j°ung mer in their brand nev ui j forms taking their girls for a walk. This internal army will be administered by the German Army. "It is true that ilic Poles have five divisions sitting round Danzig and they hold the only bridge over the Vistula, 'jut -vi al can they do to check this artful technique of peaceful absorption ! The Poles might at some stage or other rush into Danzig. They say they can get there in half an hour. This would suit the Germans admirably. Hie Nazis would speed to the rescue of Danzig and take the greatest care to act strictly on the defeusive in the west. They would assert chat they were dealing with a somewhat large scale "local incident'' and nlace the onus of declaring war—and thus precipitating a world war—on France and Great Rritain. This according to the high-up Nazis, would not suit the demoneracies, so they would do nothing, and the Poles would be left holding the baby and asking for terms — which, would be stiff and comprehensive. " 'But. supposing'—l said to a prominent Nazi—'you've misjudged public opinion in Great Britain and France, what then !' They have the answer pat. "Yours will he the responsibility i.'or having started a world war, and we shall be able to show our Volk how right we were in saying we were being encircled."