DANGEROUS POSITION

Evening Post, Volume CXXII, Issue 25, 29 July 1936, Page 11

DANGEROUS POSITION

NAZI DOMINATION

OPPOSITION UNCRUSHED

The status of Danzig—German in population, autonomous, with certain rights reserved to Poland and with a League of Nations High Commissioner to see that- the Constitution is ob-1 served and to mediate in disputes—is well known, writes George Soloveytchik in "The Spectator." The present High Commissioner is Mr. Scan Lester, a courageous, able, and energetic Irishman. In January of this year the High Commissioner issued a report to the League in which he drew attention to the fact that the Danzig Government, consisting since May, 1933, entirely of Nazi Germans, was openly violating the Constitution and terrorising the opposition minorities. Mr. Lester's report seemed to stir up opinion in Geneva, and the Rapporteur on the Danzig questionMr. Eden—secured the League's authority to call upon the Danzig Government to behave in accordance with the Constitution, i.e., to drop its policy of terrorism and restore to the nonNazis their legal rights. Herr Greiser, the Nazi President of the Danzig Government, ■ accepted this reprimand and promised to mend his ways. CONTEMPT FOR LEAGUE. Needless to say, he has done nothing of the sort. No sooner was he back from Geneva than he proclaimed in a speech at a huge public meeting that his Government—or Senate, to give it its proper name—could guarantee the application of Hitlerism through purely administrative measures, despite the legal obstacles raised by Geneva. He also took this opportunity of emphasising his contempt for both the Rapporteur and the High Commissioner. Last month Mr. Lester went to Geneva, but the hopes temporarily raised by his report of an apparent improvement in the situation have already been completely dispelled. The man who is really in charge at Danzig, controlling both Herr Greiser's Government and the Nazi Party organisation, is one Forster, the "Gauleiter," or chief of the party, in the territory of the Free City of Danzig. He is a Bavarian by birth, a Prussian Councillor of State, and a disciple of the notorious Jew-baiter Julius Streicher. His functions are the same as those of his "colleagues" in Czechoslovakia or Austria, with the difference, however, that in Danzig it is possible for this Nazi pro-consul to use his power quite freely. A MONSTROUS POSITION. In the 1933 elections which gained them control the Nazis got in by a very small majority. In the 1935 elections, despite the personal support of Goebbels and Goering, despite terrorism and intimidation, the Nazis, after two years in office, only won one extra seat and thus" failed to achieve their object, the two-thirds majority which would haVe enabled them to apply to the League for a new Constitution. This result was in no way commensurate with the gangster methods of the Nazi Freiheitskampf. Furthermore, the opposition, in which today Conservatives, Catholics, Socialists, and even the Communists (whose organisation is of course banned) are united, petitioned the Supreme Court and managed to prove numerous election irregularities on the part of the Nazis. Despite their terrorism, masses of witnesses testified against them, proving among other things that Storm Troops had compelled every kind of voter, including civil servants and even the clergy, to support Nazi candidates. The Court, however (itself strongly Nazi), failed to declare the elections null and void, as it should have 'done, and to decide in favour of new elections. Instead it adjourned the whole question sine die, thus- sanctioning the monstrous position. There followed a demarche of the joint opposition in Geneva, Mr. Lester's report and Mr. Eden's reprimand; but nothing has changed. CONSCRIPTION OF CITIZENS. Not only have the Nazis remained in office but they have established themselves in hundreds in huge barracks in the city. They march uniformed, and sometimes armed, through Danzig and behave like victors in a conquered city. Many of them have been actually imported from Germany, while the whole business is controlled and directed by Herr Forster. Presumably he gets not only his instructions but also his funds from Berlin, economic conditions in Danzig—a Baltic port doubly hit by the world crisis and Poland's obvious preference for using her own port of Gdynia—certainly not warranting the amount of money Herren Greiser and Forster seem to have at their disposal. Perhaps the most incredible manifestation of Nazi rule is the "conscription" of Danzig citizens into the German army. Unemployed young people are driven by the suspension of the dole and other outside pressure to apply for "voluntary" military service in Germany. They are summoned by the Danzig police— direct anda undisguised instrument of Berlin—to call at headquarters, where they are bullied in such a way that they end up by "volunteering" for the German army. A more incredible violation not only of the Danzig "Constitution" but of the generally-accepted code of international relations would be hard to find. RACE PROVOCATION. The walls of Danzig are covered with Nazi posters, while at many principal street corners large frames with Streicher's vile anti-Jewish pogrom sheet, the "Stuermer," and other provocative anti-semitic literature have been put up. It is essential to realise that the Jews in this allegedly "free" city nre submitted to the-same kind of

'treatment as in Germany. Not only lis race-hatred being preached everywhere but race discrimination is applied wherever this is possible. Jobs are taken away from the Jews, their commerce is being ruined, members of the professions are prevented Irom carrying out their work —in fact, no efforts are spared in doing to the Jews through- administrative measures or just brutal force what Hitler in Germany has done by means of his special legislation. The same also applies to the trade unions, the co-operative societies, the Protestant and the Roman Church, the Press; indeed, to all the bodies that have the faintest non-Nazi orientation. NAZI DESTRUCTION. Yet despite these efforts to crush them, which become daily more brutal, the opposition lives. The Hitler movement is very unpopular in Danzig, having brought nothing but difficulties and hardship. Its economic effects have been the devaluation of the gulden by j4B per cent, and its reduction to parity with the Polish zloty. Danzig is an ancient Hanseatic town which knows the value of freedom and commercial prosperity. 'Both these things have been almost completely destroyed by a gang of Nazi terrorists who have managed to seize power. But the spirit of the population is not broken yet, and given a little encouragement or a little protection from the Powers who originally guaranteed their Constitution the Danzigers would promptly shake oft Nazi rule. Really free elections would be the test. Such elections would certainly reveal the bankruptcy of the Nazi system in Danzig, and perhaps not only in Danzig. CHOICE FOR LEAGUE. The whole question boils down to tljis: the League which guaranteed democracy and freedom to the Free City as long ago as 1920 is on its trial. Can it or can it not see that its decisions are enforced? If it can honour its specific obligations by helping the Danzigers to liberate themselves from their present dictators, the League's prestige will be enormously enhanced. If, on the other hand, the long list of failures is merely increased by the addition of one more, and the fait accompli is just registered without being resisted and removed, that will not only' throw fresh discredit on the League of Nations and democracy, but it will also mean opening the doors to unmitigated Hitlerism and all its consequences in North-eastern Europe.