STATUS OF DANZIG

Evening Post, Volume CXXVIII, Issue 8, 10 July 1939, Page 8

STATUS OF DANZIG

One of the many complications in the international situation in Eastern Europe is the peculiar status of Danzig. It was once a purely Polish city, but, through the push of Germany eastward over the centuries, it has become German in. regard to the overvyhelming majority of its population. Its pre-eminence as a trading city is due to the fact that it is the natural . gateway of Poland at the mouth of a purely Polish river, the Vistula, to the Baltic Sea. As a Free City of the Hanseatic League it has its own system of government through an! elected Senate, dating back to medieval times. It fell to Prussia at the second partition of Poland in 1793, became again a Free City, under French sovereignty, during the Napoleonic Wars from 1807 to 1814; and after that reverted to Prussia. After the Great War it once more took its old form of Free City under the League of Nations, with a small territory around it. The League of Nations cuts no figure in Danzig today, but it was different in 1933, when Mr. Scan Lester, the High Commissioner of that day, enforced respect for the League status of Free City. Under the League regime Danzig prospered with the new Poland at its back, and its people would no doubt have been satisfied to continue as they were, but for Nazi agitation for its inclusion in the Reich. The political status of Danzig today is neither Polish nor German; it is a Free City, with its own coinage and its own Government, but, being in a Customs union with Poland, it can be described fairly as being closer to Poland than to Germany. Economically, Danzig is vital to Poland, ancl an impartial observer, Dr. S. Wolf, writing in the June "Contemporary," puts it this way: The attitude that it would be possible to remove the mouth of the Vistula from the sphere of Polish influence could only, serve one ultimate purpose—to sever a vital artery in the body of Poland, and thereby slowly but surely ruin the country. The importance of Danzig in the present instance to Britain is that it does not seem to have been specifically mentioned in the British guarantee to Poland enunciated by Mr. Chamberlain at the end of March nor in Lord Halifax's latest declaration on June 29. Mr. Chamberlain's own words were: In the event of any action 'which clearly threatened Polish independence and which the Polish Government accordingly considered it vital to resist with its national forces, the British Government would feel bound at once to lend the Polish Government all the support in its power. How does the Polish Government regard Danzig? Its spokesman on Saturday was reported as summing up the Polish attitude thus: (1) The Free City must remain a separate entity outside the Reich frontiers.' (2) It must remain inside the Polish Customs area. (3) Poland's rights in Danzig must not be at the mercy of any foreign Power. (4) The population must continue to enjoy full cultural rights. Briefly, Poland is content with the status quo. Germany desires inclusion in the Reich, doubtless for sentimental and strategic reasons, for economically and politically Danzig is not vital to the Reich. To clarify the attitude of Poland the Polish Ambassador (Count Raczynski) in London made a hurried trip to Warsaw. Today's news states that he is returning by air and will deliver an "important message to Lord Halifax, the nature of which will govern Mr. Chamberlain's decision whether to state Britain's policy on Danzig forthwith." It is expected that the Prime Minister will speak on the point in the House of Commons today, and, according to the cable message, "will reassure Poland of assistance if her integrity is threatened." In view of continued support for the policy of "appeasement," said to be exhibited in letters in "The Times," what Mr. Chamberlain has to say will be awaited with the greatest interest.