The Evening Post. THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 11, 1937. A "DIPLOMATIC LULL"?

Evening Post, Volume CXXIII, Issue 35, 11 February 1937, Page 8

The Evening Post. THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 11, 1937. A "DIPLOMATIC LULL"?

Mr. Eden's much-discussed holiday has been associated in the cabled news with a "diplomatic lull/ It was assumed that a diplomatic lull would follow the Reichstag speech of Herr Hitler—the only apparent reason being .that diplomacy ■ was temporarily powerless in the face of a negative Fuhre'r—and ihen it was suggested that Mr. Eden would take advantage of the lull to enjoy a long-deferred and much-deserved holiday in the South of France. On the circumstances of the holiday a "Daily Mail" writer has been speculating ominously and hinting at a restoration of Sir Samuel Hoare ■to the Foreign Secretaryship in place of Mr. Eden, because of the difficulty of reconciling with existing facts Mr. Eden's ideas of League collective action. The doubts thus cast on the truly holiday meaning of Mr. Eden's holiday may also be extended to the diplomatic lull. Can there be a diplomatic lull when arbitrary actions (even "a new reign of terror") are reported from Danzig, and when Malaga-has fallen to a fresh attack of Spanish rebels? Even the original message concerning Mr. Eden's holiday was not free from inconsistency. This message, which seems to have' come from Rugby, stated that "Mr. Eden arrived at Monte Carlo and conferred for half an hour with Colonel Beck, Polish Foreign Minister." A busman's holiday, evidently. Even in the balmy atmosphere of Monte Carlo it is hard to believe that a British Foreign Secretary could take Colonel Beck and the Polish problem in his stride, without feeling that they dragged him back to his office desk. On the clay that Monte Carlo reported this half-hour interview between the British and Polish Foreign Ministers, London cabled Danzig reports (which came apparently some •through Berlin afid some through Warsaw) of the above-mentioned renewed "reign of terror"—arrests of "over fifty people, chiefly Roman Catholics," also arrest of the leaders of the Danzig Nationalist Party and of the Socialist Party. Particularly truculent, is this alleged statement of a Danzig Nazi leader: Herr Forster, district Nazi leader, asserted that they had practically finished the opposition parties. They had established good relations with Poland and would be cordial to the High Commissioner provided he did not interfere with the city's internal politics. This statement that the Danzig INazis are acting on an understanding with Poland must be read in connection with two sensational . debates on Danzig last year by the League of Nations, with Mr. Eden's intimation at that time that the League looked to Poland to safeguard League policy in Danzig, and with Colonel Beck's later visit to London. The question of how far Poland stands in with France and the League, and how far with Germany, is not a new one. But if Poland is now seen to stand in with, the Danzig Nazis to the degree that Herr Forster is alleged to have^ boasted, the statesmen responsible for League collective action—in /particular,' Mr. Eden —have a new cause of anxiety in Danzig. Herr Hitler has promised "no more surprises," but Herr Hitler would not feel himself charged with responsibility for what Poland might be persuaded to do in deviation from the League's Danzig policy, even if the persuading came from Berlin. On the face of the cabled news, it appears that the League's policy of collective action is facing fresh Danzig trouble with an uncertain Poland as the League's trusted agent. Behind the face of the news is the suggestion of a Hitler diplomatic score in Poland and Danzig; to which the "Daily Mail" adds the further suggestion that owing to the incompatibility of Mr. Eden's ideas of collective action with Hitk-rism and with facts, Mr. Eden will give place to Sir Samuel Hoarc. Equally in the realm of conjecture is ''■People's" suggestion that a new '"Progressive Parly" might be formed by the Samucliles (League supporters) under ihe lead of Mr. Ramsay Mac Donald, who would have to resign his seat in the National Government in order to give the "Progressives" septuagenarian leadership. Conjecture of course should be separated from the basic fact, which seems to be, in short, "more trouble for the League in Danzig." Quite in contrast with the supposition of a Polish-Nazi understanding in Danzig is the imprisonment of 29 Nazis in Poland for "planning to restore Polish Silesia to Germany." Warsaw reports:

It was alleged that they planned a military rising, that they were in communication with the German Secret Service (Gestapo), and had sworn allegiance to Herr Hitler. Large numbers escaped to Germany before the trial.

This trial of alleged Nazis in Poland, although it brings into llie picture the Gestapo and Herr Hitler, cannot be placed on the same dramatic plane as Moscow trials; none of the convicted men received more than twenty months' imprisonment. But the allegation of a Silesian plot at least reminds the world of that deep-

rooted issue between Germans and Poles. Silesia, taken from Germany after the Great War, goes to ihe root of racial, economic, and industrialmilitary issues. The new Polish military, plan (reported on February 7) to "transfer national defence industries to a strategic triangle in the middle of Poland" arises largely out of ihe fact that "the most important industries are near the German Irontier in Upper Silesia." Could any evidence of the confusion in European civilisation be more conclusive than this? Here is a country which, because of ihe nature of things, fears a German blow to recover lost territory.- Assurances may be given in Berlin, compromises (not loved in Geneva) may be made wilh Danzig Nazis, but the fear and distrust of Germany remain. Because of that, industries cannot be • permitted to continue where they have sited themselves naturally. ■ They must choose their new location in consultation wilh ihe Polish General Staff, and commerce must bow to Mars. More or less, it is ihe same in most countries. The more civilisation calls/for unrestricted industry, the more it puts industry under restraints —transplants them, camouflages their environment, protects them from those aerial bolls which everyone, expects to some day fall. This is the slate of mind'that underlies the relations 'of neighbour nations. And yet there is talk of a "diplomatic lull."