The Wanganui Chronicle THURSDAY, MARCH 23, 1939. LITHUANIA CAPITULATES

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 83, Issue 69, 23 March 1939, Page 6

The Wanganui Chronicle THURSDAY, MARCH 23, 1939. LITHUANIA CAPITULATES

| JTH LAMA has capitulated to the demand that the town of Memel shall be transferred to Germany. German pressure against Russia is thereby increased. Whether Memel should go lo Germany on ethnic or other grounds may be the subject of debate, but it is true tint the town has nany German associations and citizens. Nevertheless it. is the natural port for Lithuania, and lo deprive that small country of its point of ingress and egress is to inflict a, hardship upon it. Had the Lithuanians be.-n less intransigeant over the Vilna controversy it would possibly have been in a position 1o call upon friends to help her resist German pressure to-day. Germany owned the town of Memel before the Great War. By the Versailles Treaty she ceded all territory east of the River Niemcn (called Memel in its lower course) and undertook to accept whatever disposal the Allies made of it. The conference of ambassadors did not consider Memel until August, 1922, and meanwhile it had been suggested that Memel might be given a status in regard to Lithuania like that which had been given to Danzig in regal’d to Boland. Lithuania, however, precipitated matters by seizing the town in a surprise attack on January 15, 1923, forcing the French Garrison to surrender and evacuate. A commission of enquiry was set up and worked out a constitution for the. town, which was signed by all parties in May, J 924. This convention constituted the Memel territory as a unit within Lithuania with a clearly-defined measure of administrative and financial autonomy, and with a Governor appointed by the President of Lithuania. The port was defined as a port of international concern, and was placed under a harbour board including a technical expert, of neutral nationality appointed by the League of Nations. By the seizure of Memel the Reich ignores the undertakings of the Versailles Treaty (which Hitler has renounced), she has overriden the vital interests of Lithuania, and has thrust aside the work of the League of Nations. None of these actions are in themselves surprising, seeing that Germany has made clear her intention of taking by force any territory she desires without respect to the rights of other peoples. The latest action by Germany will cause no surprise, but it will add to the discomfiture of the Baltic countries, and to that extent cannot be regarded as an unqualified gain to Germany. The European situation has deteriorated one more step, and it is difficult to foresee how this process can go on without leading soon to a widespread conflict. In such a conflict it may be asked what w ill be the role to be played by the Uniled Kingdom. The wider the spread of operations the. more necessary will it be for the United Kingdom lo become the arsenal of Europe, the carrier of munitions and supplies, and the. keeper of the sea lanes —a formidable task indeed. France hopes, by the aid of the Maginot Line, to hold up any German advance toward the West, and if she is correct in her calculations she will probably require less military support on the Western Front from the United Kingdom than was required in 1914, when the Germans were successful in breaking through by way of Belgium. Meanwhile the seizure of Memel proves that no speech nor series of speeches—no matter where delivered and how severely worded—are likely to del er Germany from her path.