FRONTIER OUTRAGE

Manawatu Standard, Volume LIX, Issue 145, 22 May 1939, Page 7

FRONTIER OUTRAGE

CUSTOMS HOUSE RAZED. OFFICIALS ATTACKED. GERMAN CROWD’S ACT. (United Press Association—By Electric Telegraph.—Copyright.) Received May 22, 9.15 a-m. DANZIG, May 21. A German crowd, including many uniformed men, fired on and destroyed a Polish Customs house on the East Prussian frontier. The occupants fled from the district when the police stated that their safety could not be guaranteed. Later the crowd attacked a member of the staff of the Polish Consul-General who was arriving by car to inspect the damage. The police declined to give protection whereupon the chauffeur fired on and drove away the attackers, wounding one who died later. The Senate protested sternly to the Polish Consul. It was later revealed that the Polish Vice-Conunisisoner (M. Perowsky) went out to the frontier post at Kalthof to inspect the damage, leaving the car near the station. Five Germans attacked the chauffeur, who fired a revolver twice in the air ami then fired on the attackers. Officials of the Free City give a different version and say that the occupants of the car, in which were recognised the counsellor to the Polish Legation, the president of the Polish railway, and the chief inspector of Polish Customs, were fired on by a German bystander who escaped in a railway engine. 'The frontier post is a total wrek, and it is impossible to check those entering from East Prussia. • The Gazeta Gdanski, solo Polish newspaper in the free city, is banned for three months. Two leading Polish journals are banned for five months and Polish religious processions are forbidden.