Evening star., 1934-09-23
NEW THREAT TO LEAGUE
In POLISH PROPOSALS
Sapping of Strength of Body and Peril
to European Peace Are Feared
by Pertinax.

rection. Above everything else, it
wants to raise difficulties in Geneva
which may prevent Russia from enter
ing the League of Nations and the
Eastern pact of mutual assistance from
being concluded. simultaneously, it
wishes to pursue the policy inaugurated
| by the German-Polish declaration of
January, 1934-Which means, in fact,
that Poland (While keeping alive, if
possible, her alliance with France) en-
deavorS TO promote the Pan-GermaniSt
cause against Russia and against the
Danublan states in the hope that. in
return, Hitlerian Germany will leave
her national territory alone. There
fore, what the Polish government is
attempting in order to free itself from
its minority obligations must be done
! with German acquieScence.
ParadoxicaI Situation.
1t is at this point that the situation
becomes truly paradoxical, at any
rate seemingly so. In the days Of
Stresemann the Berlin governments
were wont to insist most energetically
upon the strictest fulfllment of the
treaties giving protection to the ma
tiOnal mInOrlticS. since they regarded
them at the time as an efficient
weapon against Poland and the Dan
Ubian states. Such an attitude CORE
spends to a German policy which had
not yet thrown off its mask Of mod
Grafton and still deemed it useful to
create the illusion that its abandon
ment Of program OF Warlike revenge
could be insured by concessions to the
/ German point of view, and that it
/ was within the power of the League
OF Nations to reconciliate viGtOrs and
yanquished permanently.
Now another phase has begun:
preparations are openly made for a
world conflict. The principal fear
of the Germans is that the League 81
Nations would be transformed into a
defensive alliance against them
which the scheme Of pact Of mu-
tual alliance has been intended to
achieve. AS a consequence, Hitler
and his associates strain every nerve
to demollsh the League as fast as they
can, to sap all its powers, to detach
pacifsts from Geneva by making it
obvious that nothing more than an
empty shadow Of the League subsists,
that 1t cannot be taken seriously and
that the Northeastern pact of mutual
assistance cannot be conceived as the
practical application Of principles
which have already vanished COM
pletely.
Germany Is Passive.
That is the background of the Po-
lish campaign against the treaties of
/ minority. The Germans are conced-
| ing so much TO tactical considera-
tions. for the time being, that they
/ remain quiet and passive while the
| Poles, who have learned to be prac-
! tical (perhaps rather indiscriminate-
/ ly) avail themselves of the present
( favorable occasion 10 SequeStrate the
properties Of the Prince Won Pless
! ttheir arch enemy in Upper SilesiaJ
/ and of German societies exploiting
/ the Upper Silesian coal fields. 1t is
! reported on good authority that when
Herr ThySSen, the coal and steel mag
nate, lately complained TO Hitler of
what was going on, the latter replied:
We cannot afford to antagonize Po-
land on economic matters at the very
! moment when she lends us such val
liable political aSsistance!"
Whether the problem of the ma
| tional minoritieS will or will not be
| in the forefront of the League contro-
| versies at Geneva (Which bid fair
to be very heated is still doubtful.
1 however