Evening star., 1937-10-23
NaZi Danzig.

In consequence of one of those i'm
pudent coups which relationships ven
ture when the attention of other coun-
tries is diverted to more pressing
problems, Germany has just become
master of the Free City of Danzig BY
blotting out the last vestige of the
party system, the Nazis have put an
end to democracy in the ancient port
at the head of the Polish Corridor. They
have in effect established there the first
totalitarian state in Europe outside of
the Reich, planting it truculently on the
ruins of the regime created by the
Treaty of Versailles as an independent
community under supervision of the
League of Nations. Geneva has seldom
been offered a more defiant challenge.
With that calculated sense OF timing
which distinguishes Berlin. Toxic and
Rome on aggressive occasions, the Ger
mans have chosen for the Danzig adven-
tTe the moment when Europe is
absorbed in both the Spanish crisis and
the Brussels conference on the Sino-
Japanese conflict.
This latest Nszi brazenness is signif-
can't mainly because it is part and
parcel of the undisguised Hitler program
Systematically to restore to German
sovereignty those bleeding frontiers"
consisting of European territory which
either once belonged to Germany,
or, because still largely inhabited by
people of Teutonic blood. is coveted
and claimed by the Reich. First
came the recovery of the Saar by plebi-
scite, then the military re-occupation of
the Rhineland, now the seizure of the
government of Danzig. That the usurpa-
ton of power in the League-controlled
Free City" will whet long smoldering
Nazi designs on Austria, on Memel, the
German nook of Lithuania, and give
impetus to the current drive against
Czechoslovakia can hardly be doubted.
Hitler specializes in making hay in the
sun of opportunity. 1t is shining for
him at Gijon and Madrid, in North
China and at Shanghai Even declara-
tions by Secretary Hull that Americas
isolation from world affairs is at an
end is not likely to dissuade Hitlerism
from pursuit of its destiny
The Danzig raid was the result of
political ruse Gradually during the
past two years all local political parties
have been snuffed out by one device or
another, until only Catholic Center
opposition was left. Recently charges of
grave misdemeanors were filed against
its leaders by the Nazi local governor.
Finally the accused Catholic politicians
announced their readiness TO dissolve the
Center party in exchange for immunity
from prosecution. Thereupon the Nazis
came into complete control. Their
triumph is exultantly defined by the
Hitler press as eliminating the last
obstacle TO consolidation OF German rule
in Danzig."
The League primarily, Poland secon-
darby, are concerned with what has
now happened. Whether either of them
will, or can. do anything to undo 1t Is
more than problematical. Geneva has
jurisdiction over the Free City's foreign
relations, customs and minorities while
Danzig retains internal autonomy The
adjacent Corridor is part of Poland, and
non-aggression pact with Germany
safeguards its integrity. Despite these
parchment political arrangements, Eu-
rope is confronted once again by glaring
evidence that Man Germany stops at
| nothing in the promotion Of its pur-
! pose to spread ever wider the orbit of
| the swastika. 1t is a dsquieting develop
ment in world saturated with dictator
made danger and Spoliation.