Answering German demands for Danzig, one prominent Polish newspaper today called for the return of East Prussia to Poland, while the country celebrated the anniversary of the 1791 Constitution, the last promulgated before the final partition in 1795.
At the same time Government spokesmen expressed the opinion that Germany’s drive for annexation of Danzig and an extra-territorial highway through the Polish Corridor to East Prussia has been checked by Poland’s firm and unyielding attitude.
Illustrowany Kurjer Codzienny, independent pro-Government newspaper, argued today that East Prussia, separated from Germany proper by the Polish Corridor, should be ceded to Poland on historic, geographic and economic grounds. The newspaper claimed that the articles of the Versailles Treaty dealing with plebiscites in the regions now part of East Prussia indicated the creation of an East Prussian state entirely independent of the Reich.
“This essential point of the Versailles Treaty,” it continued, “was not executed by the Inter Allied Commission and we are consequently justified in not accepting the results of the plebiscite which took place in these regions. Thus we have the right to demand a settlement of the question of East Prussia, which is linked historically, geographically and economically with Poland and the people of which speak a Slav dialect which has resisted attempts at Germanization.”
All Polish cities were be flagged today on the occasion of the national holiday. Portraits of President Ignacy Moscicki, Marshal Edward Smigly-Rydz, inspector-general of the armed forces and “First Personage of the Republic, and Foreign Minister Josef Beck were displayed in most of the capital’s shop windows. Military reviews took place in various cities but since most of the troops were not at their regular garrisons they were less impressive than in former years.
All newspapers devoted editorials to the anniversary, recalling that May 3, 1791 was also the date on which the Polish-Prussian alliance was broken. Under that alliance, it was claimed, Prussia sought to take from Poland the province of Posnan and the cities of Torun and Danazig.
Pending the speech of Foreign Minister Beck to Parliament on Friday, in which he is expected flatly to reject Chancellor Adolf Hitler’s demands, real optimism was voiced in Government circles here. Poland’s tactics in starting a “counter-offensive” to the German campaign has borne fruit, it was held.
Today the anti-German attacks in the Polish press took another tach the Government organs, in their editorials and the selection of news dispatches, systematically stressed the anti–German demonstrations in various countries. From these reports, the press arrived at the conclusion that in Spain, Slovakia, Austria, Bohemia – and even in the Reich itself — the population is more and more openly demonstrating its antipathy to Nazi regime.
The Nazis are now forced to choose between two alternatives, the newspapers here claimed: either to renounce their imperialist plans which have mobilized world opinion against them or run the risk of a conflict in which the Reich can only emerge defeated.
It was also admitted in German quarters that the Nazi “bluff” of “the last territorial demand” no longer works. These sources agreed that if a Polish-German war broke out, Britain and France would come to Poland’s help, not for Danzig but “to prevent extension of German hegemony.” This, it was felt here, is also understood in Berlin.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
