CLASHES IN DANZIG

Southland Times, Issue 23824, 23 May 1939, Page 7

CLASHES IN DANZIG

GERMAN SHOT BY POLE NAZIS IN UNIFORM ATTACK CUSTOMS EAST PRUSSIAN FRONTIER POST DESTROYED (United Press Assn.—Telegraph Copyright) (Received May 22, 10.55 p.m.) WARSAW, May 22. Two clashes between Poles and Germans in Danzig, in one of which a' German was shot dead, have resulted in an exchange of demands between the Polish Government and the Danzig Senate, which is dominated by the Nazi Party. Poland’s Note to the Danzig Senate demands a stringent inquiry, reparations for the damage done and assurances of the safety of Polish citizens in the Free City. The Danzig Senate’s Note demands compensation for the relations of the victim of the shooting, an apology from the Polish Government and the surrender of the Pole who fired the shot. The first incident occurred when a German crowd, including many men in uniform, fired bn and destroyed a Polish Customs house on the East Prussian frontier and 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 ConsulGeneral, who was arriving by car to inspect the damage. The police declined protection, upon which the chauffeurs fired on and drove away the attackers, wounding one man who died later. The Danzig Senate has protested sternly to the Polish Consul-General. STORM TROOPERS The second incident occurred at Pieckel, at the southern point of Danzig territory. Customs officials telephoned that they were barricaded ’ in the Customs house, which Nazi Storm Troopers in uniform were attacking, shouting anti-Polish slogans and demanding the blood of the Polish Customs officers. The Polish newspapers declare that the men who attacked the Customs house at Kalthof were Germans from East Prussia, not citizens of Danzig. It is emphasized that the Polish Customs officials gave no cause for any provocative act. The police at Kalthof have arrested four Polish railway workers. It was revealed later that the Polish Vice-Commissioner (M. Perowsky) went out to the frontier post at Kalthof to inspect the damage, leaving his car near the station. Five Germans attacked the chauffeur, who fired his revolver twice in the air and then fired on the attackers.

Officials of the Free City of Danzig give a different version. They say that the occupants of the car, in which a counsellor of the Polish Legation, the president of the Polish railway, and the chief inspector of the Polish Customs were recognized, fired on a German bystander? They then escaped on a railway engine. The frontier post is a total wreck and it is now impossible to check persons entering Danzig from East Prussia. DANZIG VERSION An official statement by the Danzig Senate says that the victim of the Kalthof incident was “a Danzig citizen named Gruebner, who was shot by a Polish citizen named Murawski without reason.” “The conduct of Polish Customs inspectors in Kalthof towards German Danzig women had stirred the crowd to demonstrate before the Polish Custom house,” says the statement. “No Polish property or person was injured. The police intervened and as a result the affair was liquidated. Of this the Polish diplomatic representative In Danzig was advised. Nevertheless, a counsellor of the Polish Legation at Danzig, M. Perowsky, and several Polish Customs officials went to Kalthof, although the investigation of political incidents is the concern of the Danzig officials. “It was established that the fatal shot at Herr Gruebner came from an occupant of M. Perowsky’s car. Herr Gruebner had been in Marienberg all day and was not concerned with the Kalthof demonstration. He left Marienberg by taxi after midnight and was blinded at Kalthof by the lights of M. Perowsky’s car. Quitting his taxi to ascertain the cause of the trouble, he was killed by two shots. The occupants of the Polish car left Kalthof in a locomotive in the direction of Dirschau (Poland). “The police confiscated the Polish car, in which was found a loaded Mauser pistol and an empty revolver holster. They established that the fatal shot was fired from a Polish army pistol. Herr Gruebner and the driver of his taxi were both unarmed.”