SWAY IN MEMEL

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 19893, 22 March 1939, Page 5

SWAY IN MEMEL

EXPECTED MOVE ULTIMATUM BELIEVED LITHUANIAN CONCERN REMOVAL OF TROOPS PANIC-STRICKEN JEWS (Rccd. March 22, noon.) LONDON, March 21. In reply to a question in the House of Commons yesterday, the Foreign Under-Secretary, Mr R. A. Butler, said the position in Memel was 'being closely watched. The Berlin correspondent of the News Exchange says that an announcement of the absorption Ojf Memel by Germany can be expected at any moment.

A Kaunas message states that instead, of a full secret session of the Lithuania 'Parliament committees of the Legislature met to discuss the European situation. These meetings were followed by a council of Ministers which released 1 people of Memel from military service.

An emergency assembly of the Diet was summoned by telephone. The sitting lasted for over two hours. There was no announcement as to thi result, but proposals are reported to nave been submitted for the return of Memel to Germany. It stated that the return would be settled between che German Foreign Minister, Heir von Ribbentrop, and the Lithuanian Minister.

A Warsaw message states that it is reported there that Herr von Kibbenorop handed an Ultimatum, to the Polish Minister in Berlin demanding chat Memel be a free city from now on, and the withdrawal of Lithuanian troops, police and frontier guards. The ultimatum threatened German occupation not only of Memel but oi Lithuania unless the demands were met.

A further report from Berlin states iit is disclosed that the last of the Lithuanian itroops will have left Memel territory by to-morrow. Jews are panic-stricken.

Memel is a semi-autonomous territory within the State of Lithuania. Memel. was in the German Empire up to the end of the Great War, after which it was detached and placed under the control of a conference of ambassadors, who in 1923 passed it over to Lithuania. According to the Memel Convention of May, 1924, between Lithuania on one hand and Great Britain, France, Italy and Japan on the other, the territory of Memel constitutes a unit under the sovereignty of Lithuania, but with a large measure of local autonomy. A large percentage of the Memellanders are Germans, speaking the German toiigue.

Lithuania has been an independent State since the end of the Great War. The country became a Grand Duchy in the thirteenth century, and in 1386 the Grand Duke, Jogaila, embraced Christianity and married the Polish Queen, Hedvig, thus becoming King of Poland. During the reign of Vytautus (Vitold) the Great (1392-1430), Lithuania reached the zenith of her power, her frontiers extending from the Baltic Sea to the Black Sea. After the death of Vitold the Great, Polish influence in Lithuania increased, and in 1509 the Lithuanians were forced to sign a treaty of union with the Poles. Both countries elected the same king and had a common Seim (Parliament). At the end of the eighteenth century Lithuania fell under Russian rule, remaining so until the Great War. In 1917 a Lithuanian Conference of 214 representatives at Vilna elected a Lithuanian State Council, and demanded complete independence, which was proclaimed on February l(i, 1918. From December 20, 1922, Lithuania

has enjoyed recognition by the Groat Powers. The Polish Corridor is, potentially, one of Europe's greatest dangerspots. It is a belt of territory running from Poland to the Baltic Sea, cutting right across what was formerly German territory and separating the German province of East Prussia from the rest of Germany. It was created in order to give Poland access to the sea through the port established at the Free City of Danzig. Germans have always resented the existence of the corridor, and have wished to eliminate it, joining East Prussia to the rest of Germany once again.