Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1931-02-15
POLAND ANTICIPATES. NEW
CONFLICT OVER CORRIDOR
Fears War Deluging Cities With Gas.
Germans Say Gdynia Was Built
to Starve Danzig.

German city property change hands,
his indignation and his despair lose all
bounds
Yet every day the Pole is winning a
battle and the German losing trench.
In fact, In the Corridor itself, the
German disaster is already complete.
Pomerania, as the province Is named,
! is today the most Polish corner of all
the republic; Bromberg, in the heart
Of the Corridor, contains a larger per-
centage Of Poles than Warsaw, the
capital. All that Is really left is DAN
zig, and Danzig is actually in state
of close siege.
For the American, the situation of
DanZig is perhaps the most illuminate
| ing detail in preSent-day Europe. Here
is city situated at the mouth of a
| great river, occupying in respect of the
Vistula Valley the situation of New Or
leans to the Mississippi-and the Wis
tula Valley is Poland. This city has
for centuries been the port of Wis
tula basin; it is equipped with all the
machinery of a modern harbor. It has
railways, docks, banks, warehouses. And
| it is, while locally a free state, within
the Polish customs.
Danzig Is German City.
Possessed of all these advantages,
DanZig is nevertheless a German city
in a Polish customs area, and it has
placed its Germanism above its pros
perity When the Bolshevists APP
preached Warsaw in 1920, and the COL
lapse of Poland seemed assured. Dan
zig endeavored to check the flow Of
munitions from France to Poland. 1t
failed. Poland was saved. But Po-
land did not forget. Again, although
live 1ary re
local laws make it impossible for Poles
to buy land or acquire citizenship with
in the city. But lest any enc should
see this course as blind or stupid, let
one consider the fate of Torun, of
Bromberg, of GraudenZ, which in 10
years. have been utterly Polonized. Had
Danzig lowered the barriers it would
be today at ,least half Polish city, and
in two decades the submersion would
be complete.
BY contrast the Poles, faced with the
eternal and never-ending opposition of
Danzig, have resorted to other meas
ures. Ten miles from panZig on their
own soil, they have constructed a sea-
port which has risen in three years
from fishing village to a modern port.
Today it counts $4,000 people. where
three years ago it had 1000, tomorrow
it will have 100, 900, and already its
November a railway was completed
which leads straight south from Gdynia
to Bromberg and which this year will
be opened to the SileSian coal mines.
Then the Poles will have their own
port, short railway line, their ware
houses, docks. factories. It will lie
in their power to increase their harbor
indefinitely.
In the presence of this deadly peril
Ma 1@ne so 70
to the League of Nations. protesting
that its ruin is in sight and charging
that Poland has violated the treaty of
Versailles in building Gdynia, since 1t
obtained economic control Of the Ger
man city only on the basis of its claim
to port on the sea. But what can the
League do to restrain the Poles from
building on their own soil? And even
the return of Danzig to Germany, its
Incorporation in East Prussia, would
only complete its ruin, for East Prussia
has already an empty port in Konigs-
berg.
City Beautiful But Tragic.
I know no more tragic city in the
world than DanZig, still one of the most
beautiful in Europe. In its streets you
have the sense OF an overhanging Vesu-
vius, presently to transform DanZig into
ton are facing the time when they
must choose between Surrendering their
nationalism or their city. AS a city, as
an economic entity, the future DanZig
remains assured A nation of 40, 000, 900,
such as Poland must become in less
than 20 years now. can support two
ports. But no Polish government will
intervene to save Danzig while Danzig
remains an outpost Of Germanism, an
3~fV
To become Polish and prosper, to re-
main German and perish, this is today
the alternative.
We in the United States are looking
anxiously to Europe to see some sign OF
economic revival. just as we continue
to hope to see some promise of peace.
But here in a corner of the old CONT
nent, hardly known to our millions,
not only Is new war preparing, but,
in fact, an old war is continuing unin-
terrupted. while in every meeting place
Of men and women the talk is of the
next war, not as something desired but
as calamity not to be escaped.
And very definitely one further con-
sideration imposes. In the east Of
Europe, the shadow of Russia Is always
visible. Always one is conscious of the
enemy ever watching for the chance to
make a new forward stride. It is not
dificult to imagine the state of mind
In which Moscow observes two western
capitalistic peoples uncompromisingl
pursuing courses which lead to new
conflict, to war in which Russia could
be the single winner For the SoViets,
today, the issue of the Corridor is the
chief basis for enduring confidence in
the coming of the long hoped world
upheaval. For Europe, and even
America, it is the most tragic circum-
stance in contemporary life, an obstacle
to real peace, which after ten years
daily becomes more formidable.
Copyright. 1872