THE ONLY GERMANY
Sut,—Mr. Hugh Ross Williamson suggests that no conceivable German government (except in the circumstances of another Versailles diktat) would " restore Danzig and the Corridor."
East Prussia was in origin a Prussian colony. The so-called "Corridor" is historically Polish territory, and is peopled by Poles. By the act of brigandage of 1772 it was seized by Prussia, and twenty-three years later the Polish State ceased to exist, as a result of further aggressions on the part of Prussia, Russia and Austria.
It would have been strange indeed if those who, after the war of 1914-1918, decided to recreate the Polish State had deprived Poland of her historic access to the Baltic. The city of Danzig might justly have been included in the recreated State ; but by a wise act of compromise, generous to Germany, it was made into a Free City, thereby giving to the German majority of its population a full measure of self- government.
In this connexion, may I quote the following extract from Hitler's speech to the German Reichstag on March 7th, 1936?
" I should, therefore, like to have the German people under- stand the inner motives underlying the National Socialist foreign policy, which, for instance, is very much pained that the approach of 33,000,000 people to the sea leads over terri- tory formerly belonging to the Reich, which, however, regards it as senseless, because impossible, simply to want to deny so large a State an approach to the sea."
Having regard to recent occurrences, perhaps I may be allowed in conclusion to quote another passage from the same speech: " I love my people, and I know it can be fortunate only, when life, according to its nature and its way, is possible for k. I will not have the gruesome Communist international dictatorship of hate descend upon the German people, which can not only weep but can also laugh heartily through its life. . . . I .see no possibility for making it clear to the German workers the danger, so disturbing to me, of the misery coming from Bolshevistic chaos in Germany, if I myself, as leader of the nation, were to bring myself into close relationship with this danger."—I am, Sir, yours obediently, H. C. HAYCRAFT.
The Forge Cottage, Bishopsbourne, Canterbury.
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