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Diary 3: May 1936 - February 1937 Item 14
TRANSCRIPTION
- 2 -
In the interval between the first part of the Council
meeting on Saturday, July 4th, and the second part which was
held an hour or two later, I remarked to Count Lubienski, Chef
de Cabinet of Colonel Beck, that after President Greiser's
speech I was afraid the situation in Danzig would become impossible
for the League and that although I had helped to pull
together difficult situations during the past year or two I was
afraid that this declaration of President Greiser left no
elasticity and no room for any such attempt. He most clearly
spoke on orders from Berlin and the first stage towards raising
the entire Danzig question had been reached. I was afraid that
in the circumstances my own mission in Danzig was ended and that
I would not be able to be of much further use to the League of
Nations. Count Lubienski said clearly the matter was very
serious, but hoped that I had no idea of resigning. I said that
would partly depend upon the Polish attitude and that in the
short statement made by Mr. Beck prior to the adjournment I saw
very little that was helpful. He went and discussed the matter
with Colonel Beck and returned to me again, when in the presence
of Mr. Stevenson and Mr. Walters I made a somewhat similar
remark, adding that it seemed to me that it was now a question
of whether the League could continue to exercise any function
in Danzig unless there was some means of dealing with the challenge
thrown down by the Senate. Count Lubienski, after a
further talk with Colonel Beck, again approached me and said
that in Colonel Beck's view any move on my part would be merely
to play the game which was wanted by Berlin and the Senate.
They (the Poles) were very much alarmed at the situation and
were more than delighted that it was I who was holding the роsition
in Danzig. They thought that any suggestion that I should
not remain would be fatal. At his urgent request I agreed that
I would not consider any step of the kind without further
consultations and certainly not until I knew what position the
Council would take up both with regard to the personal element
and to the problem raised in a critical way by the Danzig
declarations.
I may recall that even during the preceding days when it
was understood that the cruiser incident would pass through
the Council into the hands of the Polish Government without
difficulty, I had twice informed the Poles through Count
Lubienski and Mr. Beck that I was not in any way taking the
German attitude to be a personal one. I was offered a great
deal of personal abuse, but as the main charge was that I had
carried out the Council's orders I would not allow myself to be
used as a sacrifice to save anybody's face. On the two occasions
when this was suggested the very idea was treated as an impossible
one.
Language(s) of Transcription
LOCATION
Gdańsk (Poland) (54.3612, 18.5499)
Story Location
ABOUT THIS DOCUMENT
Document Date
Document Type
Document Description
Language of Description
Keywords
External Web Resources
People
Jerzy Łubieński
Description: Acted as a representative of Polish Foreign Minister Józef Beck in the Free City of Danzig
Wikidata Reference: Q111469215
Arthur Greiser
Description: German politician (NSDAP), MdR, Senate President of the Free City of Danzig, Reich Governor and Gauleiter of the NSDAP
Wikidata Reference: Q213826
STORY INFORMATION
Title
Diary 3: May 1936 - February 1937
Creator
Lester | Seán | 1888-1959
Contributor
Lester, Seán, 1888-1959
Seán Lester
Coverage
name=Twentieth century; start=1936-05-06; end=1937-02-01
Date
6 May 1936-1 February 1937
Type
Text
Rights
This collection has been digitised and made available by Dublin City University Library. Please credit Dublin City University Library when using these images, creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Language
eng
Identifier
#ng45f7525
LandingPage
https://www.europeana.eu/item/707/_ng45f7525Country
Ireland
DatasetName
707__Dublin_City_University
Begin
1936-05-01
End
1937-02-28
Language
en
Created
2022-03-23T16:13:34.244Z
2022-03-23T16:14:08.313666Z
2022-03-23T16:14:08.314189Z
Story Description
Consists of unbound typed diary entries, documents and letters relating to Lester's final months as High Commissioner of the League of Nations in Danzig. Lester left Danzig on 22 December 1936 having been promoted to the position of Deputy Secretary General of the League. He took up his new appointment in Geneva on 16 January 1937. Includes document written by Lester outlining the context for the file: 'The following fragments are the only notes I have of my last six months in Danzig ... The reason they are so fragmentary ... was that the crisis in Danzig developed so quickly and in such uncertainty that I could not safely keep any record of certain matters, either in my house or my Office. For three months at any rate I was not at all sure that my house and Office might not be occupied any day by the political Police or the Storm Troopers [sic].' - Document comprising of two diary entries, the first from 6 May 1936 (pages 1-3) and the second from early July 1936 (pages 4-9) combined together as a single entry. The section from 6 May 1936 is duplicated in Diary 2: January-June 1936 in the collection [diary C1/2]. Includes diary entries (some marked 'Private Diary') from the following dates: 8, 17, [?20], 23 (two entries with this date, one titled 'Relations with Greiser'), 24, and 28 July 1936; 3, 5, 6 and 7 August 1936 (two copies); 12 September 1936; 16, 19 and 24 October 1936; 22 December 1936 and 1 February 1937. Entries were all written in Danzig apart from the final entry (1 February 1937) which was written in Geneva. Includes undated notes on Albert Forster, the Nazi Party's Gauleiter in Danzig, that was originally filed between diary entries from 24 October 1936 and 22 December 1936, and was thus possibly written during that period. Includes copy letters from Lester to Joseph Avenol, Secretary General of the League of Nations, from the following dates: 11, 14 and 24 July 1926; 1 August 1936 (two copies of two different letters from this date). Most of the letters are marked 'Personal', 'Personal and Confidential', or 'Personal; Secret'.
TRANSCRIPTION
LOCATION
DESCRIPTION
PEOPLE
STORY INFO
TUTORIAL
- 2 -
In the interval between the first part of the Council
meeting on Saturday, July 4th, and the second part which was
held an hour or two later, I remarked to Count Lubienski, Chef
de Cabinet of Colonel Beck, that after President Greiser's
speech I was afraid the situation in Danzig would become impossible
for the League and that although I had helped to pull
together difficult situations during the past year or two I was
afraid that this declaration of President Greiser left no
elasticity and no room for any such attempt. He most clearly
spoke on orders from Berlin and the first stage towards raising
the entire Danzig question had been reached. I was afraid that
in the circumstances my own mission in Danzig was ended and that
I would not be able to be of much further use to the League of
Nations. Count Lubienski said clearly the matter was very
serious, but hoped that I had no idea of resigning. I said that
would partly depend upon the Polish attitude and that in the
short statement made by Mr. Beck prior to the adjournment I saw
very little that was helpful. He went and discussed the matter
with Colonel Beck and returned to me again, when in the presence
of Mr. Stevenson and Mr. Walters I made a somewhat similar
remark, adding that it seemed to me that it was now a question
of whether the League could continue to exercise any function
in Danzig unless there was some means of dealing with the challenge
thrown down by the Senate. Count Lubienski, after a
further talk with Colonel Beck, again approached me and said
that in Colonel Beck's view any move on my part would be merely
to play the game which was wanted by Berlin and the Senate.
They (the Poles) were very much alarmed at the situation and
were more than delighted that it was I who was holding the роsition
in Danzig. They thought that any suggestion that I should
not remain would be fatal. At his urgent request I agreed that
I would not consider any step of the kind without further
consultations and certainly not until I knew what position the
Council would take up both with regard to the personal element
and to the problem raised in a critical way by the Danzig
declarations.
I may recall that even during the preceding days when it
was understood that the cruiser incident would pass through
the Council into the hands of the Polish Government without
difficulty, I had twice informed the Poles through Count
Lubienski and Mr. Beck that I was not in any way taking the
German attitude to be a personal one. I was offered a great
deal of personal abuse, but as the main charge was that I had
carried out the Council's orders I would not allow myself to be
used as a sacrifice to save anybody's face. On the two occasions
when this was suggested the very idea was treated as an impossible
one.
- English (English)
- 2 -
In the interval between the first part of the Council
meeting on Saturday, July 4th, and the second part which was
held an hour or two later, I remarked to Count Lubienski, Chef
de Cabinet of Colonel Beck, that after President Greiser's
speech I was afraid the situation in Danzig would become impossible
for the League and that although I had helped to pull
together difficult situations during the past year or two I was
afraid that this declaration of President Greiser left no
elasticity and no room for any such attempt. He most clearly
spoke on orders from Berlin and the first stage towards raising
the entire Danzig question had been reached. I was afraid that
in the circumstances my own mission in Danzig was ended and that
I would not be able to be of much further use to the League of
Nations. Count Lubienski said clearly the matter was very
serious, but hoped that I had no idea of resigning. I said that
would partly depend upon the Polish attitude and that in the
short statement made by Mr. Beck prior to the adjournment I saw
very little that was helpful. He went and discussed the matter
with Colonel Beck and returned to me again, when in the presence
of Mr. Stevenson and Mr. Walters I made a somewhat similar
remark, adding that it seemed to me that it was now a question
of whether the League could continue to exercise any function
in Danzig unless there was some means of dealing with the challenge
thrown down by the Senate. Count Lubienski, after a
further talk with Colonel Beck, again approached me and said
that in Colonel Beck's view any move on my part would be merely
to play the game which was wanted by Berlin and the Senate.
They (the Poles) were very much alarmed at the situation and
were more than delighted that it was I who was holding the роsition
in Danzig. They thought that any suggestion that I should
not remain would be fatal. At his urgent request I agreed that
I would not consider any step of the kind without further
consultations and certainly not until I knew what position the
Council would take up both with regard to the personal element
and to the problem raised in a critical way by the Danzig
declarations.
I may recall that even during the preceding days when it
was understood that the cruiser incident would pass through
the Council into the hands of the Polish Government without
difficulty, I had twice informed the Poles through Count
Lubienski and Mr. Beck that I was not in any way taking the
German attitude to be a personal one. I was offered a great
deal of personal abuse, but as the main charge was that I had
carried out the Council's orders I would not allow myself to be
used as a sacrifice to save anybody's face. On the two occasions
when this was suggested the very idea was treated as an impossible
one.
Language(s) of Transcription
English Translation
Transcription History
- 2 - In the interval between the first part of the Council meeting on Saturday, July 4th, and the second part which was held an hour or two later, I remarked to Count Lubienski, Chef de Cabinet of Colonel Beck, that after President Greiser's speech I was afraid the situation in Danzig would become impossible for the League and that although I had helped to pull together difficult situations during the past year or two I was afraid that this declaration of President Greiser left no elasticity and no room for any such attempt. He most clearly spoke on orders from Berlin and the first stage towards raising the entire Danzig question had been reached. I was afraid that in the circumstances my own mission in Danzig was ended and that I would not be able to be of much further use to the League of Nations. Count Lubienski said clearly the matter was very serious, but hoped that I had no idea of resigning. I said that would partly depend upon the Polish attitude and that in the short statement made by Mr. Beck prior to the adjournment I saw very little that was helpful. He went and discussed the matter with Colonel Beck and returned to me again, when in the presence of Mr. Stevenson and Mr. Walters I made a somewhat similar remark, adding that it seemed to me that it was now a question of whether the League could continue to exercise any function in Danzig unless there was some means of dealing with the challenge thrown down by the Senate. Count Lubienski, after a further talk with Colonel Beck, again approached me and said that in Colonel Beck's view any move on my part would be merely to play the game which was wanted by Berlin and the Senate. They (the Poles) were very much alarmed at the situation and were more than delighted that it was I who was holding the роsition in Danzig. They thought that any suggestion that I should not remain would be fatal. At his urgent request I agreed that I would not consider any step of the kind without further consultations and certainly not until I knew what position the Council would take up both with regard to the personal element and to the problem raised in a critical way by the Danzig declarations. I may recall that even during the preceding days when it was understood that the cruiser incident would pass through the Council into the hands of the Polish Government without difficulty, I had twice informed the Poles through Count Lubienski and Mr. Beck that I was not in any way taking the German attitude to be a personal one. I was offered a great deal of personal abuse, but as the main charge was that I had carried out the Council's orders I would not allow myself to be used as a sacrifice to save anybody's face. On the two occasions when this was suggested the very idea was treated as an impossible one.
English Translation
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