CAUSES OF FRICTION

Evening Post, Volume CXIII, Issue 103, 3 May 1932, Page 7

CAUSES OF FRICTION

Friction was evident between the Boles and the Free City of Danzig when in April of last year M. Henry Strasburger, the Polish Commissioner in

Danzig, returned to Warsaw and, on fhe ground that ho found it impossible to protect the interests of Poles in Danzig, tendered his resignation. Ho declared that the Senate of Danzig had ignored all his protests in connection with a number of attacks on Poles and their property. There had been some nine or ten attacks 'on Poles, and in no cases had convictions been made,- while ■a new trial had been rejected in tho case of, some Polish workmen who had been murdered in tho preceding January, the first trial having been abortive. ■ v

This incident was further ventilated at the May sitting oif the Council of th'o League, the High Commissioner in Danzig reporting that Polish-Danzig relations had become very unsatisfactory. Mr. Arthur Henderson expressed grave concern at the substance of this report, declaring that "demonstrations by Nationalist organisations on tho territory of the Free City must involve a serious risk, and that' these incidents must affect the relations of the FreeCity and Poland." Tho Council of the League decided to address a pressing appeal to both parties to take action to re-establish a spirit of confidence between the two countries and to calm public opinion, before this the Public Prosecutor of Danzig, who had refused tho now murder trial, was dismissed from office, Dr. Ziehm, President of the Danzig Senate, who represented Ins country at the-League, having declared that Poles enjoyed the protection ot the law equally with Danzigers, and that the aim of Polish a'ctionat Geneva was "to obtain the application of the League Council's decision of 22nd June 1921 whereby the .Polish Government should be empowered, in certain circumstances, to preserve order in Danziz in m ttory;/ • P°land' he said ' was seelfTln-« c ? btf n, s°vereignty over Danzig. This speech, had a resounding echo in the German Press. ■-. .'■■.. ■■■::. ;

tIJ v trutJl., appears to" be that while end of tho "PolisV Corridor" to give the reconstituted nation of Poland acwhfh "? Se- a the mutual goodwill made of this arrangement has vanished sonic time ago. Tho "Free City" has not been wholly free and Poland has obtained the upper hand. A-portion of tho Free dty area has been assigned to the i n i ail d repute for pur ° oses which are not altogether, in the interests' of Danzig. Poland has a largo reservation with special facilities for the storage of war equipment, thus depriving the city b? the rights of nonbelhgcrents in the time of future war. Poland has her own post office and above all, she has been developing her own port at Gdynia, just outside the iree City area. ', THE NEW. POLISH PORT. The Poles claim that this construction results from the fact that the Free City cannot be used for military purposes, and in 1921 they made a survey of the coast to find a suitable spot foV a port. The small fishing village of Gdynia, twelve miles north-west of Danzig, was chosen. It took three years to decide on the site and sign the contract for construction. [Finally in July, 1924,-M. Joseph Kiedron, then Minister of Commerce and Industry, entered into an arrangement with the firm of Schneider, Hersont, and the Soeiete de Constructions dcs Batignolles, in which the latter concern' assumed the responsibility; for the ■ whole task. There is to be a north mole, an cast mole, a south mole, and a breakwater and within these a number of piers. . Provision is made for a military port and a commercial port, and an indication of the size of the work is given by the fact that Havre, with all its improvements, has a port of only 11 miles and Marseilles one of only 13 miles, whereas by next year Gdynia will have one of 93 miles, Of which over 74 miles are already completed. The inerea'so in the shipping tonnage is already phenomenal,, for it has risen from 14,352 in 1924 to 1,445,000 in 1929, and this year will far surpass 2,000,000 tons. •

This has not been calculated to increase the good feeling between Danzig and Poland, for the obvious result of the success of-Gdynia will be to damage the position of tho Free City. Moreover in 1921 a decision of the High Commissioner of Danzig stated that Poland. should endeavour to make as much use as possible of the Free Port. Last year the League determined to take legal advice as to whether this was binding or merely a recommendation, and by a majority decision the Committee; appointed rejected the Danzig claim'that the city had "a sort of monopoly of Polish export trade" and appealed to tho parties to come to an arrangement for an equitable distribution of commerce. ' ■