DANGERS AT DANZIG
Commonwealth and Foreign
By GEORGE SOLOVEYTCHIK
THE news of a fracas at a political meeting in Danzig on Saturday, resulting in the death of one Nazi and injuries to a number both of Nationalists, whose meeting was being attacked, and of Nazis, calls opportune attention to the fires smouldering perilously under the surface of this so-called Free City.
The status of Danzig—German in population, autonomous, with certain rights reserved to Poland and with a League of Nations High Commissioner to see that the Constitution is observed and to mediate in disputes—is well known.
The present High Commissioner is Mr. Sean Lester, a courageous, able and energetic Irishman. In January of this year the High Commissioner issued a report to the League in which he drew attention to the fact that the Danzig Government, consisting since May, 1933, entirely of Nazi Germans, was openly violating the Constitution and ter- rorising the opposition minorities. Mr. Lester's report r.ecined to stir up opinion in Geneva, and the Rapporteur on the Danzig question—Mr. Eden—secured the League's authority to call upon the Danzig Government to behave in accordance with the Constitution, i.e., to drop its policy of terrorism and restore to the non-Nazis their legal rights. Herr Greiser, the Nazi President of the Danzig Government, accepted this reprimand and promised to mend his ways.
Needless to say, he has done nothing of the sort. No sooner was he back from Geneva than he proclaimed in a speech at a huge public meeting that his government—or Senate, to give it its proper name—could guarantee the application of Hitlerism through purely administrative measures, despite the legal obstacles raised by Geneva. He also took this opportunity of emphasising his contempt for both the Rapporteur and the High Commissioner. Last month Mr. Lester went to Geneva, but the hopes temporarily raised by his report of an apparent improvement in the situation have already been completely dispelled.
The man who is really in charge at Danzig, controlling both Herr Greiser's government and the Nazi party organisa- tion, is one Forster, the " Gauleiter," or chief of the party, in the territory of the Free City of Danzig. He is a Bavarian by birth, a Prussian Councillor of State, and a disciple of the notorious Jew-baiter Julius Streicher. His functions are the same as those of his colleagues " in Czechoslovakia or Austria, with the difference however that in Danzig it is possible for this Nazi pro-consul to use his power quite freely.
In the 1933 elections which gained them control the Nazis got in by a very small majority. In the 1935 elections, despite the personal support of Goebbels and Goering, despite terrorism and intimidation, the Nazis, after two years in office, only won one extra seat and thus failed to achieve their object, the two-thirds majority which would have enabled them to apply to the League for a new Con- stitution. This result was in no way commensurate with the gangster methods of the Nazi Freiheilskampf. Further- more, the opposition, in which today Conservatives, Catholics, Socialists and even the Communists (whose organisation is of course banned) are united, petitioned the Supreme Court and managed to prove numerous election irregularities on the part of the Nazis. Despite their terrorism, masses of witnesses testi- fied against them, proving among other things that Storm Troops had compelled every kind of voter, including civil servants and even the clergy, to support Nazi candidates. The Court, however (itself strongly Nazi), failed to declare the elections null and void, as it should have done, and to decide in favour of new elections. Instead it adjourned the whole question sine die, thus sanctioning the monstrous position. There followed a demarche of the joint opposition in Geneva, Mr. Lester's report and Mr. Eden's reprimand ; but nothing has changed.
Not only have the Nazis remained in office but they have established themselves in hundreds in huge barracks in the city. They march uniformed, and sometimes armed, through Danzig and behave like victors in a conquered city. Many of them have been actually imported from Germany, while the whole business is controlled and directed by Herr Forster. Presumably he gets not only his instructions but also his funds from Berlin, economic conditions in Danzig— a Baltic port doubly hit by the world crisis and Poland's obvious preference for using her own port of Gdynia— certainly not warranting the amount of money Herren Grciser and Fiirster seem to have at their disposal.
Perhaps the most incredible manifestation of Nazi rule is the " conscription " of Danzig citizens into the German army. Unemployed young people are driven by the suspension of the dole and other outside pressure to apply for " voluntary " military service in Germany. They are summoned by the Danzig police—a direct and undisguised instrument of Berlin— to call at headquarters, where they are bullied in such a way that they end up by " volunteering " for the German army. A more incredible violation not only of the Danzig " Constitu- tion " but of the generally accepted code of international relations would be hard to find.
The walls of Danzig are covered with Nazi posters, while at many principal street corners large frames with Streicher's vile anti-Jewish pogrom sheet, the " Stuermer," and other provocative anti-semitic literature have been put up. It is essential to realise that the Jews in this allegedly free " city are submitted to the same kind of treatment as in Germany. Not only is race-hatred being preached everywhere but race discrimination is applied wherever this is possible. Jobs are taken away from the Jews, their commerce is being ruined, members of the professions are prevented from carrying out their work—in fact no efforts are spared in doing to the Jews through administrative measures or just brutal force what Hitler in Germany has done by means of his special legislation. The same also applies to the Trade Unions, the co-operative societies, the Protestant and the Roman church, the Press, indeed to all the bodies that have the faintest non-Nazi orientation.
Yet despite these efforts to crush them, which become daily more brutal, the opposition lives. The Hitler movement is very unpopular in Danzig, having brought nothing but difficul- ties and hardship. Its economic effects have been the devalua- tion of the gulden by 48 per cent. and its reduction to parity with the Polish zloty. Danzig is an ancient Hanseatic town which knows the value of freedom and commercial prosperity. Both these things have been almost, completely destroyed by a gang of Nazi terrorists who have managed to seize power. But the spirit of the population is not broken yet, and given a little encouragement or a little protection from the 13owers who originally guaranteed their Constitution the Danzigcrs would promptly shake off Nazi rule. Really free 'elections would be the test. Such elections would certainly reveal the bankruptcy of the Nazi system in Danzig, and perhaps not only in Danzig.
The whole question boils down to this : the League which guaranteed democracy and freedom to the Free City as long ago as 1920 is on its trial. Can it or can it not see that its decisions are enforced ? If it can honour its specific obliga- tions by helping the Danzigers to liberate themselves from their present dictators, the League's prestige will be enormously enhanced. If, on the other hand, the long list of failures is merely increased by the addition of one more, and the fail accompli is just registered without being resisted and removed. that will not only throw fresh discrelit on the League of Nations and democracy, but it will also mean opening the doors to unmitigated Hitlerism and all its consequences ill North-Eastern Europe.
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