Evening star., 1932-06-05

" " mating in Berlin and DanZig,
have recently reported the
tmminence Of a Polish in
vasion of the territory Of the free city
of Danzig and forecast new and
violent chapter in the now notorious
planation of these reports is manifold,
but so far even the German chancellor
has testified to the lack Of corroborat-
ing evidence. Nevertheless 1t is not too
much to say that the situation at the
mouth Of the Vistula has become so
acute that Europe and the rest of the
world may at any moment be face to
face with new menace of war
The essential facts in the situation
have in the last few years become
pretty generally known all over the
world. The actual details which con-
stitute the immediate menace are less
well known, and in these details lies
the eternal peril of an explosion To
give Poland an outlet on the sea, the
Treaty of Versailles detached Danzig
and its enviyons from Germany and
included them within the tariff from
tiers of Poland But to protect the
racial rights of the overwhelming Ger
man majority in this territory, it was
erected into free state with its own
government reinforced by a representa-
tive of the League of Nations.
Loyal to Fatherland.
Poland was thus to use the port of
Danzig, but the people of the city were
to remain Germans. This was the
theory. Beyond it lay the assumption
that the material welfare of the city
was SO locked up with the Polish
hinterland that in becoming a prosper
world Ia he
ciled to its separation from the Ger
man fatherland. But, in point Of fact,
although it has. become a vastly more
considerable port, DanZig has been
neither prosperous nor recOnciled.
1t has not become prosperous be-
cause while its Seaborne trade has ex-
panded, its local industries, chiefly
shipbuilding, have fallen to nothing 1t
has not become reconciled because its
loyalty to the German fatherland has
grown as its fear of ethnic submerg-
ence in a Slavic wave has expanded
Already all of the true Corridor. that
Is the old German territory along the
VIStula which was ceded outright to
Poland, has been ethnically trans
formed. Bromberg, Thorn and smaller
cities have seen their German majori-
ties melt away to be replaced by Polish.
Always the same fate hangs over
Danzig. Moreover, the danger is real
because while the city remains in Ger
man control, that is in the hands of
the German majority, the railways are
Polish. Polish labor works on the
dock; Polish troops occupy the old
Coney Island of the Westerplatte, where
munitions are now stored Only the
fact that the Danzig Senate forbids
Poles to become citizens of the Free
State or own property prevents con-
quest by inflltration.
New Harbor Takes Trade.
Meantime 10 miles to the west the
Poles have constructed the Harbor of
Gdynia, bound it to inland Poland by
a new railway providing a shorter haul
10 the coal mines and equipped it with
harbor machinery which surpaSSeS
that of Dang. From a fishing hamlet
Of 200 inhabitants Gdynia has ex-
panded to city or nearly $4,000 in
little more than five years and from
nothing its tonnage has almost equaled
Danzig's in the same period At will,
therefore, the Poles can turn all their
trade to Gdynia and throttle Danzig
Increasingly, therefore, in recent
years the Danzigers have been brought
face to face with the alternative of
SuDIillSSiOil 10 HOld1O OF complete rum.
When I was in Danzig in 1928 the
Germans were still confident of their
ability to resist indefinitely Last year
a second visit left me with the sense
OF city in extremis besieged and
despairing. And with the development
CT despair there has also marched the
expansion of the Hitler movement, not
alone in Germany, but also in the Free
State.
Now what are the conflicting in
terestS of Poland and Germany and
as a consequence the policies of the
two nations in this area? Obviously
the Poles, while not satisfied with
present conditions, are acutely aware
OF the fact that time is marching with
them. They have re-Polonized the
Corridor in which there has always
been, save in the cities, a Polish ma
Jority. If the situation continues as
1t is. it is possible that in or 10 years
Danzig will have to capitulate, that