The Washington herald., 1921-03-14
Middle Class Danzig People
/ Struggle with Wolf at Door
Writer Tells Of German Journalist Who Must
Support Home on $26 Month and
Faces Fight With Smile.

had before the war-a new tailor
made suit would have cost 5000
marks-and every time that we
went out into the town he changed
his clothes, and when he returned
got into his working outfit again.
BY such care, and a certain punc-
tiliousness OF manner and of carry
Ing himself. he always looked well
dressed and even had something of
an air.
Their food was meager enough.
They had coffee without sugar. aha
on the evening ! dined with them
In their apartment they left the
white bread untouched for their
guest. Restaurants-in which the
American, with his magic dollars.
dimes just as well as he would at
home and atvabout a fourth or fifth
the price-they naturally kept
away from, and travel of any sort,
even were there any place to which
they could get permission to go.
was. of course. out OF the ques-
tion.
English Salaries.
One evening. in restaurant,
three young ladies breezed in and
took the table next to us. They
were stepographers from the office
OF the British high commissioner.
the representative of the allies in
DanZig. all noticeably well-dressed
and with that pink checked air of
freshness and excess vitality which
sets apart all the occupying per-
sonnet from the young Tommies
pp, from the rather gray-IoCking
Germans. They ordered very
good dinher, with game and Bur-
gundy. and chattered Eayly of a
trip to. Warsaw and back. an all
nights ride, the following week
end-just to see the town.
The Danziger asked me presently
how mndt I supposed these young
ladies wNe paid. 4 had no notion.
How much?
Paid 10000 Marks n Year.
Well" said he, they are paid at
the rate of 10000 marks a year.
They get as much in a month as
my wife does in twelve months.
They get more than six times as
much as ] do for my work"
The salaries of the stenographers,
which I'verified later. were. nat
urally. a triffing. part of the ex-
penses of the force. both English
and French. occupying Danzig.
There were the salaries of the va
rious officers, ascending to the al
most incredible amount paid to the
high commissioner himself: the
wages of the soldiers making up
the garrison, the rent of barracks
and of the other buildings use as
Offices and officers quarters
The ESgiish. II might be remark
ed In parentheses, were, quantity
enough, not disliked, but almost
popular in Danzig. They were look
ed on by the Danzigers as their one
defense agains the eXactions of
the Poles. In the parks, in the
evening. l passed groups of British
Tommies and DanEig girls all
swinging along arm in arm. sing
ing "Tipperary." heard several
Danzigers say that IL they had to be
ruled-by any foreigners they would
prefer the English.
Favored Danzigers.
Sir Reginald Towers failure to
return to Danzig after his journey
to Paris in the late autumn was
generally supposed to be due to
complaints of the Poles that he had
favored the Danzigers. And my
newspaper man companion spoke
with no bitterness, but rather as
a man, trying to figure out some-
thing which was beyond solution.
He merely smiled and shrugged his
shoulders as, nodding toward the
breezy party next to us, he said:
of course, I've got to pay for all
that-somehow!"
AS Danzigers go, this young cou-
pie, as long as they kept well, were
comparatively well situated. They
were young there were two Of them
to contribute to the family income,
they had no children. and no prob
lem of getting milk where there
was none to be had, nor shoes and
clothes for any but themselves. The
position Of workmen with large
families. out of a job, of the officers
and technical men of a shipping in
dustry for the present destroyed
ian American told me of the for
mer captain of big transatlantic
liner offering to work for him as
cook If he could get him a passport
to America), of old ladies and wild
ows dependent on small incomes
which have shrunk to nothing, is,
of course, another matter.
Copyright, 1891, New York Evening Pest