10 JULY 1936, Page 1

NEWS OF THE WEEK

THE sensational and much reported incident which terminated the proceedings of the League Council last Saturday, when the Press gallery rather childishly tittered at Herr Greiser's Nazi salute and Herr Greiser still more childishly retaliated by making a long nose at them, is the least important part of the Danzig episode which had just occupied the Council. The subject on the agenda was the refusal of the commander of a German cruiser visiting Danzig to call on the High Commissioner. The discourtesy, which was deliberate, is inexcusable. But a discourtesy is not, by its very nature, the breach of a formal obligation ; and it may in retrospect be doubted whether a private remonstrance to the German Government from the rapporteur would not have been both more appropriate and more effective than public discussion of the matter by the Council. One of the inconveniences of dealing with it in this way was that Herr Greiser, as President of the Danzig Senate, had to be invited (as always when Danzig questions appear on the agenda) to attend the meeting. The invitation gave Herr Greiser the chance for which he—and apparently Herr Hitler—had been waiting.