GERMANY’S CLAIM FOR DANZIG

Dominion, Volume 32, Issue 260, 1 August 1939, Page 9

GERMANY’S CLAIM FOR DANZIG

(Consulate States The Nazi Viewpoint

PROPOSALS MADE TO WARSAW

“The main object of the foreign policy of National Socialist Germany always has been ami still is the removal of the intolerable ami unjust stipulations of the I reaty of Versailles. Danzig is one of the worst examples of this kind. Ninety-eight per cent, of the population of Danzig arc Germans, a fact which even the Polish politicians never have disputed.

This is declared in a statement issued yesterday by the German Consul-General in New Zealand, Herr E. Ramm. The statement continues: —

“These 410,000 Germans living in Danzig are National Socialists and tilled by the same ideals as the Germans within the borders of the Reich. All statements to the contrary are wrong and demonstrate that those who made them do not understand or do not wish to understand the spiritual force which emanates from the National Socialist movement.

“Foreign observers who listen to the counsels of disappointed politicians of the former Weimar Republic and other emigrants are ill-advised. They would do better to remember the. results ot the plebiscite in the Saar territory and of the election in Austria. Aim of Ruining Danzig. “By the Treaty of Versailles Boland was given an overlording over the Danzig Free State. This artificial creation as weU as the peculiar way in which the Corridor, giving Poland access to the sea, was marked out, was .meant above all to prevent for all time the establishment of an understanding between Poland and Germany. “Poland never earnestly tried to avail herself of the excellent facilities offered by the harbour of Danzig. On the contrary, she very early started to build 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 the Polish traffic. There is today more than 10 miles of unutilized harbour frontage in Danzig which are at the disposal of Poland. “Poland tries to justify her demand for the maintenance of the status Quo in Danzig with the argument that she could not do without the port of Danzig because it lay at the mouth of the ,Vistula, which was the ‘main artery’ of Poland’s economic life. Two things are to be said against this argument:—

“(1) With equal right Germany could claim Dutch ports because they happen to be situated on the mouth of the Rhine. On the same basis Hungary would have the right to Rumanian Galatz, Yugoslavia to Greek Salonika or at least the Gulf of Salonika, and Spain to Oporto in Portugal. A moment’s reflection and a look at the map should suffice to refute this part of the argument. Use Fallen Off. “(2) Now let us see what use Poland has made of the ‘main artery’ of her economic life. Since the Great War commerce has fallen off so tremendously on the Vistula that one is Inclined to believe that it must have been systematically discouraged. Upstream shipping on the Vistula amounts at present to only half of that carried in 1913, downstream to two-thirds. In 1938 not a single ton of either iron or oil was shipped on the Vistula, as against 26,721 tons and 41,887 tons respectively in 1913. It is even more astonishing that the transport of logs, which amounted to 354 rafts of 214,367 tons in 1913, fell off to 101 rafts of 66,662 tons in 1935.

“It would be quite beside the point to discuss here whether Poland does not want to make use of the Vistula or whether, simply, she cannot. Tn any case, the fact remains—and it speaks for itself —that only one-hundredth of Poland’s goods-transport is operated on by her interior waterways, as compared to Germany’s one-fourth, and France’s one-fifth. “The important thing is that as a result of this development Poland can no longer lay claim to the Vistula as her main artery of commerce. This shows that Poland’s demand for the maintenance of the status quo is purely psychological, resting on the policy of prestige, and has nothing to do with economics. Proposals to Poles. “In his speech of April 28, the Fuehrer, Adolf Hitler, once more repeated that, whenever the higher interests of the’ European comity were at stake, national interests must, if necessary, be relegated to second place in certain cases. The acceptance of the present frontiers with France and Italy as final ones may be cited as examples of this policy. In the same broadminded way the Fuehrer also recognized the necessity of giving to the Polish nation a free access to the sea just as Germany needs access to her province of East Prussia. “In order to achieve this object, and notwithstanding the fact that there are still large German minorities living within the boundaries of the Polish Stale, the Fuehrer caused the following proposals to be submitted to the Polish Government:— “(1) Danzig to return as a Free State into the framework of the German Reich. “(2) Germany to obtain a route through the corridor and a railway line for herself with the same extraterritorial status for Germany as the cortdor itself has for Poland. “In return, Germany is prepared:--“(1) To recognize all Polish economic rights in Danzig. Insure Free Harbour. "(2) To insure Poland of a free harbour in Danzig of any size desired, giving her completely free access to the “(3) To accept at the same time the present boundaries between Germany and Poland an<i to regard them as final.

“(I) To conclude a 25-year nou-ag-gression treaty with Poland, a treaty therefore which would extend far beyond the duration of the Fuehrer’s own ] ifc.

“(5) To enter into a guarantee of the independence of the Slovak State by Germany, Poland and Hungary jointly, which means, in practice, renunciation of any exclusive German hegemony in this territory. “The Polisli Government not only rejected that offer bill also believed that it must call up troops even though there was not a. single German, soldier

near the German-Polish frontier in those days.

“Since April the Polish Press has been publishing articles written by generals and political leaders about (lie ‘conquest of East Prussia and Pomerania.’ and ‘the Battle of Berlin.’ Even the terms of the treaty which the Poles propose to dictate in Berlin have already been discussed. “Tiie extreme moderation of the Government of the Reich is demonstrated by (lie fact, that the German Press is allowed to publish only by fragments tlie news of the persecutions to which German minorities iti Poland are subjected daily by an incited populace. Tin? knowledge of the full truth would bo certain to arouse an indignation which might seriously endanger all hope of an understanding. “The essence of the whole issue has been summed up by the Fuehrer in the sentence: ‘Danzig is a German town and wishes to belong to Germany.' This desire is shared by the whole German n,'ition, and is entirely compatible with a recognition of Poland’s right, to independence.”