The Future of Danzig The announcement that Mr. Sean Lester,
the League High Commissioner at Danzig since 1933, will succeed M. Azcarate as one of the Under-Secretaries of the League would, in ordinary circumstances, have been received with unmixed satisfaction. It is an appointment on which the League and Mr. Lester can both be cordially congratu- lated. The only doubts to which it gives rise relate to the vacancy which it creates at Danzig. Mr. Lester has maintained the authority of the League at Danzig with courage and dignity in face of a series of attacks culminat- ing in Herr Greiser's unmannerly demonstration at Geneva last May. His retirement at this juncture will inevitably, if unjustifiably, be interpreted as a retreat by the League. Already rumours are in circulation that Mr. Lester's successor will be, by private agreement between the German and Polish GovernMents, a Polish national, who may be disinclined to turn a critical eye on Nazi tamperings with the Danzig Constitution so long as no Polish -rights. are in question.' Two things should be said in extenuation of any weakness which the League may appear to show in this matter.' In the 'first place, the role of the League in Danzig was thrust upon it by the Versailles Treaty without any act of volition on its own part, and is in the nature of a permanent excrescence on its normal functions. Secondly, the whole Danzig settlement was based on the hypothesis of holding the balance even between the conflicting claims of Germany and Poland. Once the two interested countries come to terms, it is scarcely possible for the League to stand out for other conditions.
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