GERMAN REPLY TO POLAND

Press, Volume LXXV, Issue 22705, 9 May 1939, Page 9

GERMAN REPLY TO POLAND

* NAZI NEWSPAPER’S CRITICISM COLONEL BECK’S SPEECH RESENTED CREDIBILITY OF ARGUMENTS ASSAILED (PRESS ASSOCIATION TELEGRAM.) WELLINGTON, May 8. The following comment on the speech of the Polish Foreign Minister (Colonel Josef Beck) published in the “Volkischer Beobachter,” the official organ of the German National Socialist Party, has been received by the German ConsulGeneral at Wellington (Herr E. C. Ramm):— “The speech of Colonel Deck is disappointing because it does not go down to the roots of the problem. “(1) The main reason which obliged the German Reich to consider the agreement of 1934 as finished has not been the Polish refusal to accept the German proposals but the conclusion of the Anglo-Polish treaty of alliance. By the stipulations of this treaty, Poland is obliged to attack Germany without the latter giving the slightest offence to Poland, whenever the Reich should be involved in conflict with Britain anywhere else in the world —it does not matter for what reason. It is impossible to conform this obligation to attack Germany with the solemn declaration of the pact of 1934, by which the use of arms between Germany and Poland was mutually excluded. “(2) Colonel Beck’s assurance that neither Poland nor Britain have any intention of attacking Germany cannot stand closer examination. It will be sufficient to have a look at the Warsaw and London newspapers, which explain with the greatest frankness the policy ’of encirclement. “(3) The historical account which Colonel Beck has given of the development of the recent crisis also does not stand the test. Colonel Beck tries to make believe that at least part of the offers which the Fiihrer formulated in his speech of April 28 was new to him or that these proposals had never been made before in concrete form. The ‘Volkischer Beobachter’ reminds its readers that not•onlv in January and March. 1939, but also in October, 1938, the Polish Ambassador in Berlin was officially informed of the German ideas for a definite solution of outstanding questions between the Reich and Poland. This applies to Danzig and the Corridor as well as to the German offer to extend the nnn-agf?ression pact for 25 years. This offer was not only made to the Polish Ambassador in Berlin bv the Reich Minister for Foreign Affairs, but also to Colonel Beck personally when he saw the Fiihrer at Obersalzberg on January 5. “No Pressure or Menace” “(4) If Colonel Beck demands ‘peaceful designs and peaceful methods of negotiation’ as a condition f>~ • solving the problem, it must be stated that this has been exactly the supposition which induced the Reich to make the proposals mentioned above. These proposals were made in the most amicable form, giving the greatest consideration to the rights of Poland. There has not been a single German soldier near the German-Polish frontier to give these proposals the slightest resemblance of pressure or menace. “(5) It is incorrect when Colonel Beck reproaches the Reich for having made her .decisions on the basis of information given only by the press. There was the unmistakeable declaration which Mr Chamberlain gave on behalf of Colonel Beck in the House of Commons, by which a direct or indirect menace to one of the two partners of the alliance was defined as the point at which automatically an attack on Germany should be launched by the other partner. ■ . „ , “(6) Regarding Danzig, Colonel Beck refuses to allow the return of this purely German town to the Reich on the pretence of the economic necessities of Poland. The Fiihrer recognised these necessities in a broadminded way and took them into consideration when he made his proposals. If the fact that the German town of Danzig is situated on the mouth of a river which flows through Polish territory would justify the Polish thesis, the Reich could claim with equal right the Dutch norts. because thev batmen to be situated on the mouth of the Rhine. In this case the last decision can be given only by Danzig herself. It was not by chance that Colonel Beck did not mention the port of Gdynia, which was constructed for the sole purpose of ruining Danzig economically, under the hypocritical pretence that the harbour of Danzig was not sufficiently large for Polish traffic. There is today more than 10 miles of unutilised harbour frontage in Danzig which is at the disposal of Poland. “These facts show better than all other words the degree of credibility of Colonel Beck’s arguments. The rest is done by the unbridled Polish nress with its reckless demands for German territory.” NON-AGGRESSION PACTS LATVIA AND ESTONIA ACCEPT GERMAN OFFER (Received May 8. 8 p.m.) BERLIN, May 7. Estonia and Latvia have decided to accept the German offer of a nonaggression pact.