Omaha daily bee., 1921-09-12
The Making Of Danzig
lWarssw Correspondence Of the London Timss.l

kWhtblW NOttsbpouueuSe " the IoHooH AHhssl
The rough outlines OF the Free City OF Dan
| zig laid down in the Treaty OF Versailles have
at last been shaped by successive negotiations
| into something real. which has the comparative
approval both OF It's inhabitants and OF the Poles
The great drawback TO the idea OF DanEil
serving as the port OF Poland Is that IS per cen
OF lis population are Germans, and therefore
natural enemies OF the Poles. This fact makes
the Poles all the more nervous about their claim
10 Stree access TO the sea" When first the treaty
was published two entirely different conceptions
OF the Free City at once arose. The Poles de-
manded the widest possible Interpretation OF the
clauses which promised them control OF the port
its rail and water ways and other privileges. The
Danzigers maintained that FIRST and foremost
their city was TO be free city. and that II the
Poles were to have unrestricted control oi all ts
most important services they would have no
freedom lett
For two years fierce diplomatic battle has
been waged over the words and phrases, COM
mas and semi-eolons OF the treaty, but the most
recent negotiations have resulted in more agree
men, than disagreement, and the points still a,
issue are being rapidly settled by appeal to the
high commissioner OF the League OF Nations,
Gen. Sir Richard Haking.
The original conception OF the Free City was
based on the idea that the interests OF Poland
and OF the port OF Danzig are bound up together.
This truth became more and more apparent TO
the disputing parties as time went on In the
customs agreement II has found concrete real
ization. From January J., 1922, the Free City
becomes unit in the Polish customs admins
tration. under the control OF Polish inspectors.
The customs dues will be paid TO the Polish
government. out Danzig will receive roughly 6
per cent OF the net profits. In arriving at this
percentage the requirements OF its inhabitants
in imported goods were rated higher than those
OF the average Pole, who is peasant and finds
most OF what he needs in the country. Thus Dan
zig has direct interest in fostering Polish trade
and prosperity.
A convention between Poland and Danzig
settled the manner in which the Polish control
over the harbor, ETC., was to be exercised 1t was
at last signed, after most arduous and protracted
negotiations, last November. In it the letter
of the treaty was set aside on an inspiration OF
Lord Derby. and the administration OF the serv-
ices of the port vested in harbor board COM
posed OF five Danzigers and five Poles, who, it
was provided, might demand neutral president
if they could not agree among themselves.
This eventuality promptly arose, and Colonel
de Reynier of the Swiss army was appointed by
the League of Nations to preside over the board
for three years. He had to settle number OF
important and knotty points with regard to the
rights and completeness of the board, on which
the two different parties naturally held opposite
opinions. The value OF the harbor board is that
it compels the Poles and Danzigers to col
laborate on equal terms instead of putting one
at the mercy of the other.
The convention left plenty of points of detail
to be settled by agreement. After six months
more of negotiation these have at last been
threshed out. A code has been compiled which
establishes finally the relations of every sort, po-
the Free City and Poland. 1t makes volume
considerably larger than the Treaty of Yer
sailles. Herr Sahm, the president of the Danzig
Senate, whose name, by the way, figured origin
ally on the Polish list of war criminals, viii
shortly come to Warsaw to sign it. This in it.
self marks considerable step forward on the
path of reconciliation.
The conclusion of the negotiations practic-
ally amounts to the signature of a treaty OF peace
between Poland and Danzig. Heretofore there
has been sort of petty war carried on, both
parties being anxious to show what thorn they
could be in the side Of the other if they tried.
For instance, Pole might buy house on the
the Danzig housing board would prevent him
living in it. On the other side the Danzig fish
ing feet was barred by the Poles from using its
normal fishing grounds, which have now become
Polish waters All that sort of chicane is now
to be dropped. Poles are to receive all the rights
and privileges Except politicaD of Danzig citi-
zens, and vice versa, and there is chance of
better relations being developed.
Polish rights as granted by the Treaty of
Versailles have suffered some diminution by the
institution of the harbor board Instead of Po-
land having the control OF the Vistula mouths,
of the port and its waterways and railway tracks,
it rests with the harbor board, though, as the
result of an appeal by Poland, General Hakng
ton and exploitation of the lines which run into
the port and the adjacent goods yards. This is
a point Of the greatest importance. The trains
made up in port are destined principally for Po-
land; hitherto they have been assembled by Dan
zig railway officials who mixed up indscrim-
inately trucks for Warsaw, Lemberg, or Posen,
so that much time and coal were wasted in sort
ing them out when the train passed the Polish
frontier.
Poland is not allowed to maintain naval
base at Danzig,< but her torpedo craft and coast
patrol vessels can lie in the port, and there is
nothing to prevent her making arrangements with
the harbor board to keep a stock of coal and
naval stores there, as in fact she does at present
As result of the various agreements the Dan
zigers are not being ousted from the government
of their city, as they professed to fear at one
time Danzig is not in the slightest danger Of
being Poonized On the other hand, the Poles
have obtained sufficient footing to prevent the
whose influence in Danzig is very
strong, from squeezing them too hard. Besides
running most of the railways in the Free City,
the Poles are to have their own post and tele-
graph Office in the port, so that the Polish COM
munity (at present about Is per cent? will be
by considerable number of Of
6cia1s and their families. The Poles have been
granted premises for school and chair on the
staff of the Technical college, both of which they
would never have got had not Danzg been under |
the control of the league.
Every German hates Poland and the Poles as
4 matter of course and Germans in Danzip are
in majority. These are facts which can not
be got over, but setting these aside the Poles
have been provided with as good an instrument |
for turning these enemies into friends as could
be devised.