LE HAUT COMMISSAIRE SOCIETE DES NATIONS

LA VILLE LIBRE DE DANTZIG

R&;~mce: - (pr iva te and conf i d e n t i a l )

THE HIGH COMMISSIONER LEAGUE OF NATIONS

THE FREE CITY OF DANZIG

Daneig, September the 28th 1934

My dear Secretary General,

Since aiy r e tn rn t o D m i g the in te rna l s i tua t ion has 4

shcm signs o f A p o l i t i c a l crisas. The cpwthm -W between Pre=

s ident Rausohing and Forster seems t o have reached an acute

sta te and a d e f i n i t e deoision one aay or the other i s non

Bauschiing remained i n Geneva f o r some bnsiness not

connectad with the IIreague and rhen that was finished a reek

ago, he apparently deoided not t o return t o Daneig f o r eome

I b i s decfsion was not, as r e p o r t e 8 . a newspapers, on

acoount of hfe heal th . There have been many points on which L A

Foroter,obstructed Bauscbnlng'8 policy,though i n a recent

speeoh he (Forater) emphasised h i s friendship f o r Poland.

The tz$ble rnainly arises now from the i n t e rna i policy.

It is rumoured that Pcrster has aaid that nor ths g o l i s h

t r e a t i e a are made, Bausch#ingf s work is finished;and an

another occasian that he haenow the power t o put Bauschning

out of affice. I quote these remarks w i t h reserve. One of

the aigns tha t the conf l i s t has become an Open and f i n a l

one is the d i s a i s s a l cf a man namsd ~t;lter two days ago

rihile Earisohning r a s ~ t i l l abeent. ~ t = i t e r ras ohief cf the

presscbureau and speoially attaohed t o Bauschning,officially

a d p o l i t i c a l l y . The d i smissa l 18 aaid t o be due t o a l e t t e r

written by Streiter,who is of Course a national-socialist,to

the editor of the local jewish paper thanking him for ank arti=

cle (relative to polish treaties). Apparently a similar letter

m.ps from President Rauschning himself to diis Jewish editor ras at

by the police,the same time during a search of th. Jewes

honse . At the moment the three principal antagonist s , Rauschning

on the one side and Forster and Greiser(tio8-president of the

Senate) on the other, are in Germany where,it seem, s political

struggle ia procseding. The Poles are following the matter clo=

sely and, like myself, are, I believe, anxious that Rauschning ' L

should remain. yether they will use influence for that purpose,

I am not Sure.

The Senate,aonsisting of 12 members, seems to be about equal=

ly divided, but I have the impression that Rauschning has stron=

ger popular support. The resuit of a defeat of Rauschning would, .iC-

I am afraid, lead to even stronger efforts been made to national-

socialiee Daneig and consequently more conflicts with the Consti=

tution.

My letter to Rauschning of the 30th of August of which I

sent you a copy, intimating my uneasiner. with the general tendency

of legialation and administration, and my letters regbarding

the daggers carried by S.A. men in spite of the Presidentfs un=

dertak% may have had some small part in bringing the underground,

conflict into the Open, but it was and is obviously an impossible

Situation when the president of the Senate finds it impossible

to caizy out promsses made to the High Commissioner.

This brief note is only to indicate that the cris~s has

developed. I aha11 keep you informed.

Reguarding the jeas in Daneig I intended to nention to you

that while in Geneva, I received a request from a man who fs the

head of an organisation knomae 5 e s d6ldgations juivesn. I think

it is a FrQzch organisation, but this man,whose name I forget for

the moment, is a russfan. I refused to See him on the ground that

the Jens of Daneig must speak for themselgeq; that it might be

embarrassing if I were supposed to be influenced by outside orga=

nisations;and, thirdly, because I had reasons to doubt the discre=

tion of the man in question.

Yours sincerely

High Commissioner

To the Secretary General of the League of Nations

G E B E V A .