SURVEY OF POSITION

Evening Post, Volume CXV, Issue 125, 30 May 1933, Page 9

SURVEY OF POSITION

The Free City of Danzig has been en, gaged-in a lively electoral campaign. The present Nationalist Senate- yielded to pressure of the ever-growing Nazi •forces and dissolved the Landtag. The Hitlerites hope to sweep Danzig on May 28 as they swept the Reich. If their hopes are justified they will enter the new Landtag as the largest party and the next Senate will be formed by a Nazi President, wrote Jerzy Szapiro from Danzig to the "New York Times" last month. -The Nazis already have 4000 storm troops organised in Danzig and West Prussia, into which several East Prussian Reich units have been incorporated, those of MarienbuTg and Elbing. A majority of the 1200 policemen are Nazi party members and many officials have joined the party, fearing reprisals if the Senate is changed. -Such a change, the Poles hold, is Danzig's internal affair. Danzig always has followed the Reich in its political metamorphoses and a Hitlerite Senate is now-expected. Danzig also, it is thought, will follow the Reich's course in mass dismissals, to give jobs to the victors and in Jewbaiting, but the Hitlerites' attitude towards Poland probably would be essentially the same as President Ziehm's. They would not daje, it is believed, change by force the. Free City's status; they would not proclaim a return to the Reich, at any rate, although that seems to be desired by many partisans. GUARANTEED-BY LEAGUE. The Hitlerites know well that Danzig's Constitution is guaranteed by the League of Nations and that violation of the Free City's charter might cause the League's commissioner to ask Poland for military assistance to uphold order and peace. Any such action certainly would result in occupation by Polish forces on. tho League's behalf and no one could protest, least of all the Reich itself. Polish officials, therefore, do not fear a Hitlerite coup; on the contrary, they expect it would be easier to come to terms with a Nazi Senate than the present Government, held back by fear of the Nazis. A Hitlerised Danzig would become extremely dangerous if the Reich Government contemplated an attack on the Corridor. A Polish-German war would begin here, but such an attack is considered out of the question at least for many months to come. The present relations between Danzig and Poland are not very happy. Residents of Danzig complain, of Gdynia's competition, saying Poland does not make the full use of the Danzig port she is obliged. to by treaties. This problem is now being studied by the experts' committee in London. This condition is the' fault of the citizens of Danzig, the Poles assert. They are less enterprising than the people of young Gdynia, it is said. They refused to handle American cotton because they did not want to damage the German port of Bremen. They complain that American fruit for Poland is imported through Gdynia, but the fruit-carrying lines prefer to enter at the other port. There is no discrimination against the Free City, as the Polish preferential- tariffs and duties for certain goods are applied to both Danzig and Gdynia. Better political intentions and an honest desire to co-operate with Poland are given by the Poles as the best means to assure prosperity.