DANZIG CRISIS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23858, 12 July 1939, Page 11

DANZIG CRISIS

BRITAIN’S FIRM STAND GUAR ANTEE TO POLAND RESOLUTE INTENTION AID AGAINST AGGRESSION (British Official Wireless) (United Press Association) (By Electric "elegraph- Copyright) RUGBY, July 10. The elements of the Danzig question as they appear to Britain were fully reviewed in a statement which Mr Chamberlain made in the House of Commons, in the course of which he emphasised Britain’s resolute intention to carry out the guarantee given to Poland and also disposed of the contention, which recently figured prominently in German propaganda, that what is represented as Polish intransigeance on the Danzig question dates from, and is accounted for by, the British guarantee.

Mr Chamberlain began by reiterating that Britain was keeping in close contact on Danzig with Poland and France. He had no new information to impart on the local situation.

Proceeding, the Prime Minister laid: “Racially, Danzig is almost wholly a German city, but the prosperity of its inhabitants depends to a very large extent upon Polish trade. The Vistula is Poland’s only waterway to the Baltic, and the port is at its mouth. It is therefore of vital strategic and economic importance to her. Another Power established in Danzig could, if it so desired, block Poland’s access to the sea, and so exert an economic and military stranglehold upon her. Those who were responsible for framing the present statute of the Free City were fully conscious of these facts, and did their best to make provision accordingly.

Moreover, there Is no question of any oppression of the German population in Danzig. On the contrary, the administration of the Free City is in German hands, and the only restrictions imposed upon it are not of a kind to curtail the liberties of its citizens.

“ The present settlement, though It may be capable of improvement, cannot in itself be regarded as basically unjust or illogical. The maintenance of , the status quo had in fact been guaranteed by the German Chancellor himself up to 1944 by a 10-years’ treaty which he concluded with Marshal Pilsudski. Up till last March Germany seems to have felt that while the .position in Danzig might ultimately require revision the question was neither urgent nor likely to lead to serious dispute. But in March, when. Germany put forward an offer in the form of certain desiderata, accompanied by a nress campaign, the Polish Government realised that it might presently be faced with a unilateral solution which it would have to resist with all its forces. Poland had before her events which had taken place in Austria, Czechoslovakia and Memelland. Accordingly Poland refused to accept the German point of view and herself made suggestions for a possible solution of the problems in which Germany was interested.

Poland’s Defensive Measures

“ Certain defensive measures were taken by Poland on March 23, and a reply was sent to Berlin on March 26. I ask the House to note carefully these dates. It has been freely stated in Germany that itJs Britain’s guarantee which encouraged Poland to take the action which I have described. But it will be observed, that our guarantee was not given until March 31. By March 26 no mention of it had even been made to Poland. The recent occurrences in Danzig had inevitably given rise to fears that it was intended to settle her future status by unilateral action organised by surreptitious methods, thus presenting Poland and other Powers with a fait accompli. In such circumstances any action taken by Poland to restore the situation would, it is suggested, be represented as an act of aggression on her pari, and if her action were supported by other Powers they wou’d be accused of aiding and abetting her in the use of force. Polish Independence . Continuing, the Prime Minister said: “ Should the sequence of events in fact be such as is contemplated on this hypothesis, honourable members will realise from what I said earlier that the issue could not be considered as a purely local matter involving the rights and liberties of the Danzig population, which, incidentally, are in no way threatened, but would at once raise graver issues affecting the Polish national existence and independence.

“ We have guaranteed to give our assistance to Poland in case of a clear threat to her independence which she considers it vital to resist with her national forces, and we are firmly resolved to carry out this undertaking.”