GERMAN IMPERIALISM

Auckland Star, Volume LXX, Issue 209, 5 September 1939, Page 6

GERMAN IMPERIALISM

DANZIG A PAWN IN THE

GAME.

(By JOHN GTJNTHER.)

RIGA, August 18,

The main point about the Danzig crisis is that it has nothing to do with Danzig. This is the opinion of seasoned observers whom this correspondent has 'been consulting in this critically important part of the world. What is jroin.? on in this new period of extreme crisis is a development of the struggle for power in Europe which has persisted for hundreds of years. The age-old antipathy of Slav and Teuton is a factor; so is the comparatively new contest for ascendancy between aggressive German imperialism and the status quo policy of the British Empire.

The Germans know that they can only come to grips with Great Britain for a final show-down if they can first make their eastern frontiers safe. Before they can have any possible chance of success against Great Britain they must liquidate the Polish State. Failing that they must make Poland a satrap State or satellite, like Czechoslovakia. In effect, Germany lias Danzig already. They have complete political control of the Danzig area. They cannot claim, as they claimed during the Sudeten crisis, that German minorities are being mistreated. Danzig is more German than Germany. This must be apparent to any casual visitor. When I was in Danzig a few days ago I thought that it far outdid the Reich. Following the Austrian Example. Germans want Danzig as an exercise in prestige. They want it as an instrument in Power politics against Poland. They hope that it will be a wedge towards the future incorporation into the Reich of the Polish Corridor, so that the main body of the Reich will no longer 'be separated from East Prussia. I lie new crisis which may be said to have begun this week follows closely the example of the Austrian crisis in March, 1938, and the Sudeten crisis last September. Herr Burckhardt is coming to Berchtesgaden, so did Dr. Schuschnigg. The German Press have begun exactly the same kind of inflammatory campaign that distinguished the early stages of the assault on Czechoslovakia. The closing of the frontier (Silesia) first by the Germans then by the Poles indicates that the crisis has already developed to a tempo which the C zechoslovakian crisis took considerably longer to reach. A few days ago in Poland I saw a good many political personalities. They were unanimous in the belief that the chief danger to peace is that Herr Hitler is misinformed. They thought that Herr Hitler had been influenced by several of his close associates, chiefly Herr von Ribbentrop, to believe that Poland will not fight, therefore France could not. They thought that Herr Hitler believed mistakenly that he could make just such an end of Poland as he did of Czechoslovakia. In this belief the Fuehrer has possibly been encouraged by recent British manoeuvres. The British are reported to be spending two million ■pounds sterling a day on rearmaments. They refused a cash advance to Poland of only five million pounds. In other words, they seemed to be rating the support of their eastern ally as being worth no more than two and a half days of their own armed expenditure. Beyond this lies something deeper. It is that the British through this indirect financial manoeuvre are trying to restrain the Poles from too precipitate action. The British are in the position of a. bridge player with the dummy hand. The Poles are playing the deal. The British want to indicate to the Poles when they start 'bidding that they must not overbid. "Poland Has No Fear." I was struck by one thing above all in Poland. It is that Poland has no fear of Germany. The British are worried—the French uro frightened—sensible people!—the Dutch and the Belgians are frightened—the Swiss are terrified, so are the Yugoslavs and the Hungarians.—to say nothing of Italy. But Poland is not frightened. Poland is perfectly willing to fight a war. The British still want to avoid a war if avoidance of war is possible on any humanly acceptable terms. Therefore they are seeking to restrain the Poles. Herr Hitler knows this, according to all my informants in Warsaw. But he is making a tremendous miscalculation if he thinks that the Poles will not fight. British or no British, the Poles will fight alone if necessary. They are confident that eventually the British wiil have to come in, even if tlicy do not want to —even if they seek to wriggle out of the Anglo-Polish pledge.