Sra,—Commenting recently upon " Reprisals in Memel " you find
it disturbing that " neither side in Memel intends to respect the rights of the other " on the ground that the present Ministry has dismissed 40 Lithuanian officials and has reinstated some of the German officials dismissed by the Lithuanians. It would indeed be disturbing if these were parallel cases but happily this is not the case.
Memel officials are appointed for life and may only be dismissed by disciplinary procedure, but in 1934 Memel was governed by a Lithuanian directorate holding office against the strong and repeated protests of 24 out of 29 members of the Diet and at the general election last autumn this protest was confirmed by a similar majority of the electorate. That directorate without any such procedure dismissed several hundreds of officials who were still legally entitled to claim their salaries, and it appointed a number of Lithuanians some of whom had worse disqualifications than mere ignorance and inexperience. What has happened now under the new Directorate is merely that a small proportion of the illegally dismissed officials have been reinstated with the knowledge and agreement of the Lithuanian Governor.—Yours faithfully, ALEXANDER W. LAWRENCE.
21 St. Leonard's Terrace, Chelsea, S.117.3.
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