DOINGS IN DANZIG

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22900, 1 December 1937, Page 12

DOINGS IN DANZIG

A declaration by the head of' the Nazi Party in Danzig may be taken by the uninformed to mean that the city has lost its special status as a ward of the League. "It can be openly stated," he says, "that Danzig is ruled to-day by men taking their orders direct from Herr i Hitler; politically Danzig is now | secure." This to no more — J and no less —than an announcement, by a partisan leader, of success in efforts to control the internal politics of the city. Throughout this year the party has been making progress, often by ruse and terrorism, in acquiring power. The Government of Poland made in August a strong pro- : test to the Danzig Senate against j the brutality of the Nazi methods. | This protest, the second thus made, I applied to the persecution of resident Poles. Anti-Semitic outrages in the area were the subject, early this month, of a notification to the League by the World Jewish ConJ gress. There were announced, at that time, an intended law compelling all young residents to join the H tier Youth Movement, and another forbidding the formation of new political parties. As all other parties were already dissolved, the latter «>dict was manifestly designed to make Danzig "politically secure" for the Nazis. A feature especially sinister has been the evident fear of Nazi reprisals in which the magistrates j have stood. Issues of newspapers have been confiscated because of their critical comments, in article and cartoon, on the Nazi, campaign; the official order, in this instance, used Herr Hitler's name as if lie were Danzig's ruler. Much of this repressive action has been in ostensible conformity with constitutional provisiorts of the governing statute registered with the League; but nothing thus done can alter the relation .of Danzig to foreign Powers. It remains the Free City of Danzig, Germany having renounced all right and title over the territory, and the League s High Commissioner being still in office. Its international status is retained' by international guarantee.