CHURCHILL AND THE GAULEITER

Wanganui Chronicle, 9 June 1948, Page 4

CHURCHILL AND THE GAULEITER

THE Polish Press Agency is circulating a report of evidence given by Albert Foerster in the course of his examination before a Polish War Crimes Court. The Polish Prosecutor asked Foerster whether he had any conversations with Churchill before the war. Foerster, who was Nazi Gauleiter in Dantzig before the war answered that he did not wish to reply to that question, but next day gave details of a conversation between himself and the British statesman which took place in the latter’s London flat. Churchill was then not the Prime Minister of England, for it was in 1938 and so the conversation was between the German and a private British citizen who was very much interested in what was going on inside Germany and what were the aims of the Nazi Regime. then the established Government of the country. The report which is being circulated by the Polish Press Agency appears on its face to be a very fair report of the evidence. The testimony of the ex-Gauleiter, however, does no more than reveal that Churchill was desirous of discovering Germany’s aims at that date and was using the occasion to add to his knowledge from a red hot source concerning the future of Dantzig. Dantzig then appeared to be the spot which would touch off another world war and to a considerable degree this proved to be the case. Churchill maintained that any alteration of the status of Dantzig would have to be a result of the conclusion of international agreements. This interpretation of the procedure was wholly appropriate. The evidence of Albert Foerster is referred to as having “revealed” that he had discussions with Winston Churchill in 1938. In a sense it is a revelation in that it made open what previously had not been published, but it is not a revelation of anything that should occasion surprise. It is a revelation of the correctness of Churchill’s attitude during a private conversation in which he took part as a private citizen in 1938.