A THREAT TO DANZIG

Greymouth Evening Star, 9 November 1929, Page 3

A THREAT TO DANZIG

MODERN PORT APPEARS The growth of a mushroom city in Europe complete with aerodrome, firestation, electric power-station, storehouses, wharves, and railway refrigerators, but empty of population is so reminiscent of the Wild West that Germans who apply the adjective to the word East may be excused. The police port of Gdingen (or Gydnia), which, if the present rate of progress is maintained, will be opened next year, exercises not only the minds of Poland’s nearest neighbour, but promises to present a very pretty problem to the League of Nations as well.

According to information which is now being spread by responsible circles in Germany the future of Danzig is threatened by its young and all too promising neighbour along the coast. But Poland thinks it is natural for a nation to desire its own naval and economic base.

There are two vital points, it is held, in Gdingen’s favour. As a harbour, it is less likely to be frozen over in winter. It is situated directly on the Baltic, where the water is entirely salt. At Danzig there is a greater proportion of fresh water. The greater depth of the sea at Gdingen, moreover,' permits the entrance of ships drawing several feet more water.

NO TAXATION FOR 18 YEARS The trail of the herring lies in a literal sense over the growth of Gdingen. There is a certain amount of timber trade, but Danzig exports coal .and imports herrings, which are eaten in such increasing quantities in Poland and Germany—probably owing to the increased price of pork—that the loss to the Russian markets is counterbalanced. • As regards the coal, it is claimed that the reaction of the British strike is no longer responsible for the prosperity of Danzig. This is founded on the increasing use of Polish coal in Austria and elsewhere owing to the comparative cheapness of labour in the Polish mines. The port of Danzig is capable of handling just twice as much as the 8,000,000 tons which, have passed through it on an average during the past few years. But though Danzig has excellent facilities in regard to cranes- and the usual apparatus of a port whose principal export trade/ is derived from coal, Gdingen wjll have newer and better ones, and has promised for the next eighteen years no taxation apd the. use of the land and machinery now in process of erection rent-free. What is to happen after that time has 'elapsed is not quite certain. Either the users will have to

pay rent or the Polish State will claim the plant put up by the original users. The concession and the money for five new railway lines leading to and from Gdingen has already been voted. DANZIG ON THE DEFENCE

This very shrewd policy has impressed Germany, in the same manner as the whole plan connected with the building of Gdingen has impressed her. It is understood that certain American ideas of town-planning were borrowed when the bold idea arose of turning a fishing village of 500 inhabitants into a town with drainage and water supply for 60,000 people. But Danzig’s prosperity as a Free State, with its own system of currency, is threatened by the menace to Danzig’s port. The traveller remarks that other German coins are accepted with a willingness which is not accorded to the Polish zloty, but this is probably attributable to no other feeling than that of the comparative stability ( of the mark and the zloty.

Danzig is worried also by the fact that the Poles have realised the possibility of an up-to-date seaside resort. This means that Zoppot, a resort of the gay and careless in Poland and North Germany, will be deserted by eighty per cent, of its visitors. In short, the Polish work is thorough; an undertaking based on the vision of a genius is being adequately carried out. It is perfectly natural , for Poles, as Germans are willing to own, to prefer spending their money in their own country. But the idea is abhorrent to Zoppot, whose casino is famous in this part of the world.

LONG LIST OF CLAIMS There is, in short, such a field of argument on both sides that . the League of Nations, in whose hands the future of Danzig was laid, is confronted with a terrible series of claims and counter-claims before which- even the Upper Silesian question appears a . mild case. Anyone who has the - chance of visiting Gdingen to-day cannot fail to exclaim and admire at the extraordinary spirit of progress shown, -the thorughness of the work, the longheaded planning for the future. At the same time it is good to hear of Danzig’s efforts to hold some of her trade. There is talk of- modernising al ready existing plant for loading and unloading. By a system of rationalisation, it is hoped to do away with the present preponderance of 'officials, which now amounts to twelve per cent, of the population, necessitated, it is insisted, by the frontier aind customs regulations of the Poles. 1