Evening star., 1939-07-03
Press Opens Drive
To Sell Danzig as
Vital British Issue
Hitler Wants City, Paper
Soy, os Weapon in
StroneIine Poland
BY the Associated Press.

LONDON. July 3-With conspicu-
GUS unanimity the British press has
launched broadsides to convince
public opinion at home-and in Ger
many-that Danzig is worth war and
involves vital issue both to Poland
and the British Empire.
At the same time some sections of
the press attributed strong rumors
OF a projected Nazi coup in the free
| city during the past week end to a
German attempt to test British and
French firmness in what was called
"a war of nerves"
There was speculation whether the
British French barrage of warnings
I had any effect on postponing or
averting a crisis over DanZig. But
memory of the situation in May, 1898,
four months before the Czecho-Slo-
yak crisis, dampened any feeling OF
optimism in British circles.
At that time rumors swept Eu-
rope that Germany planned swift
coup to bring the Sudetenland into
the Reich. Britain and France re-
sponded with military precautions
and warnings. The result encour-
aged feeling in some quarters that
Hitler had been frightened off"
Yet the crisis came later, in Sep
tember, and the Munich conference
enabled Hitler to achieve dismem-
berment of Czecho-Slovakia.
Preparedness Campaign.
That dismemberment formed the
keynote of today's explanations of
why Danzig is so vital alike to
Poland and Britain.
The similarity of all these eX-
plantations indicated they were a
part of British preparedness cam
paign.
The public was told that Hitler
was not interested in Danzig merely
because it was a German city. but
for strategic reasons. He wants it,
| the British press said with one voice,
because it would give him a strangle-
hold on Poland and enable him
to dismember that country the same
way he broke up Czecho-Slovakia.
The fate of the latter republic
was pointed to as proof that Hitlers
claims of self-determination' for
the Sudetenland were used only as
means to an end.
AS for Danzig, British writer's
recalled the words of Frederick the
Great that whoever holds the mouth
of the Vistula River is more mas
ter of Poland than her own gov
| ernment.
Editorial and political writers said
Danzig was important for Britain
because it had become the crux of
British policy and a decisive point
for the British-French front.
Cannot Blk Pledges"
J.L. Garvin, editor of Lord AStor's
Sunday Observer and one-time lead
ing advocate of appeasement OF
Germany. put the issue this way:
IF Britain shirked the first test
and bilked her pledges no one in
the world would believe that we had
the CUTS for any test. Our name
would smell Our diplomatic con-
nections would dissolve. Our repute
would perish. We should be count
ed out of the rank of real great
powers.
"Ascendancy in Europe, Africa
and Asia would belong to the axis
alliance and its confederates. The
British Empire, as was once threat
ened in a former era, would become
an object of compensation.
The press also emphasized that
any attempt to change the status
of Danzig without Poland's con-
sent-whether from within or with
out-would, in the words OF the
Manchester Guardian. "be another
breach of international agreements,
another reputation of peaceful
methods in favor of force, and,
indeed. another act of aggression"