THE New Zealand Herald AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS TUESDAY, JULY 7, 1936 THE PROBLEM OF DANZIG

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22464, 7 July 1936, Page 8

THE New Zealand Herald AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS TUESDAY, JULY 7, 1936 THE PROBLEM OF DANZIG

The remarkable outburst of Herr Greiser before the League Council recalls attention to the Free City of Danzig, where he is President of the Senate. He was present at the session by courtesy, and that courtesy he grossly abused, but the subject of his complaint can be discussed without regard to the manner of his presenting of it, except in so far as this provides a clue to the difficulties with which the League's High Commissioner has at present to deal. The Council, having earlier sent for the High Commissioner in order to discuss with him certain disquieting facts, has now taken a further necessary step by requesting Poland to deal with the matter through diplomatic channels and to report at its next session. Before that report is available, however, there may be trouble aggravating the situation that led to the Council's sending for the High Commissioner and to the unexpected demand of Herr Greiser to be heard. Danzig is a potential friction-point in the political affairs of eastern Europe, as its being made a ."free city" by the Treaty of Versailles plainly recognised. On the extreme northeast boundary of Poland and occupying fully half the Baltic coastline of the "Polish Corridor" that separates East Prussia from the rest of Germany, its status under the League and its obligatory service as a port to Poland have made Danzig, under this regime, an occasion of persistent offence to successive German Governments. Since the rise of Herr Hitler to power this feeling has been accentuated and expressed, particularly within Danzig itself, where a Nazi agitation has produced considerable trouble. Danzig's population is preponderatingly German in origin, as its situation at the mouth of the Vistula made it the entrepot of old Prussia, and although so many Germans remained there under the option of exchanging their nationality for that of the city they have presented a favourable opportunity for this agitation. It is understood to have affected only a minority of them, but this minority is large and active.

For the Nazi point of view there can easily be advanced the argument of Danzig's long affiliation with Germany as well as the German origin of so many of its citizens. Naturally, since there is no readiness to acknowledge either the justice of the Treaty of Versailles or the rightful authority of the League as derived from that treaty, little account is taken of Germans' acceptance of a different nationality. Also—and this is a major element in the Nazi resentment —with the status of Danzig is involved the whole question of the " corridor," by which Germany is dismembered on the east. Anything furnishing even a semblance of cause of complaint as to the League's treatment of the "free city" is consequently used to foment dissatisfaction. In these circumstances it can be taken for granted that the task of the High Commissioner has been a difficult one, exposed to the constant risk of German criticism. Herr Greiser's statement of grievance is therefore not surprising : its assertion of unwarranted interference with the government of the city in line with the Nazi policy of concern about Germans outside the Reich, although these Danzig Germans «are voluntarily alien. They are within a stretch of territory that, once German, is now not merely foreign but creates an appreciable gap in the Reich ; and the gap is more than geographical, for it severs the bulk of Germany from the home of the ancient families of landed proprietors (the Junkers) whose power was long the most potent force in German politics. The fact that President Hindenburg's home was in East Prussia, this necessitating his travel across Polish territory whenever he took a respite there from official cares, is still employed by Nazi troublemakers to emphasise "the shame of the corridor." On the other hand is the need of Poland for access to the sea, most conveniently gained by this approach. More than this, the greater part of the "corridor" was once Polish territory and its people are preponderatingly Polish. The last census showed that fully 90 per cent of the total population declared Polish to be their mother-tongue. A little while ago an English writer fully conversant with the region said that "undoubtedly the Corridor today is even more indisputably and enthusiastically Polish, and in another ten years the proportion of Poles, with their higher birth-rate, will doubtless attain the overwhelming proportion of 95 per cent." Herr Greiser suggests a plebiscite in Danzig, but it is significant that nobody on the German side of the "corridor's" frontier has ever called for a plebiscite within it as a whole. To undo the work of 1919, which entailed taking this former portion of Poland in order to restore the country to the map, would violate the principle of nationality on which that work was based. It will be difficult to find a new solution of the problem. Doubtless advantage has been taken of the present state of affairs in Europe, and especially of the League's loss of prestige, to try to force a revision, and the scene at the Council table is probably indicative of a Nazi determination to press the German case upon the notice of the League. That it will result in a serious embarrassment of the League's supervision of Danzig is the least troublesome outcome to be feared.