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Diary 3: May 1936 - February 1937 Item 15
TRANSCRIPTION
[Copy in
yellow file]
Personal and
Confidential
Danzig, July 11th 1936.
Dear Avenol,
I enclose herewith a note of part of my conversation with
Colonel Beck, the Polish Minister for Foreign Affairs, on
Sunday, 5th instant, at Geneva. I have confined it more or
less to the precise point, but from the rest of the conversation,
of which I also have a note, there was no doubt as
to the anxiety with which Colonel Beck viewed the situation
and the significance he attached to the declarations at the
secret meeting of the Council the previous evening.
I saw Mr. Papée, the Polish Minister, on Thursday, the
9th instant. I recalled to him the declarations made by Mr.
Beck and his statements to me personally and said that the
only thing which remained in this connection was to make
arrangements as to communications with him in case the final
emergency should arise. I handed him a hote, of which I
enclose a copy. Having read itm Mr. Papée said that in such
circumstances he would of course at once communicate with his
Government and he had no doubt that they would fully comply
with all their obligations. As the only question which
remained to be settled here was the clear understanding as
to the method of communication, I withdrew my note some hours
later on the understanding that arrangements were complete
and that the note was therefore unecessary. The copy was
retained by Mr. Papée in order to be destroyed. The fact,
however, that it was on paper remains a record of the nature
of the conversation.
Mr. Papée as well as Colonel Beck, appreciated that the
responsibility conferred on me by the Council, and to which
I drew the Council's attention a week ago, wau regarded by
me as of the utmost gravity, and to be undertaken in the end
if necessary only with a very heavy heart.
Mr. Papée agreed with my view that the situation would
probably develop by stages: the first stage was the defiance
of the League with regard to the Constitution and a demand
for a revision of the Statute in that respect. This was
immediately followed by a number of declarations by President
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
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
[Copy in
yellow file]
Personal and
Confidential
Danzig, July 11th 1936.
Dear Avenol,
I enclose herewith a note of part of my conversation with
Colonel Beck, the Polish Minister for Foreign Affairs, on
Sunday, 5th instant, at Geneva. I have confined it more or
less to the precise point, but from the rest of the conversation,
of which I also have a note, there was no doubt as
to the anxiety with which Colonel Beck viewed the situation
and the significance he attached to the declarations at the
secret meeting of the Council the previous evening.
I saw Mr. Papée, the Polish Minister, on Thursday, the
9th instant. I recalled to him the declarations made by Mr.
Beck and his statements to me personally and said that the
only thing which remained in this connection was to make
arrangements as to communications with him in case the final
emergency should arise. I handed him a hote, of which I
enclose a copy. Having read itm Mr. Papée said that in such
circumstances he would of course at once communicate with his
Government and he had no doubt that they would fully comply
with all their obligations. As the only question which
remained to be settled here was the clear understanding as
to the method of communication, I withdrew my note some hours
later on the understanding that arrangements were complete
and that the note was therefore unecessary. The copy was
retained by Mr. Papée in order to be destroyed. The fact,
however, that it was on paper remains a record of the nature
of the conversation.
Mr. Papée as well as Colonel Beck, appreciated that the
responsibility conferred on me by the Council, and to which
I drew the Council's attention a week ago, wau regarded by
me as of the utmost gravity, and to be undertaken in the end
if necessary only with a very heavy heart.
Mr. Papée agreed with my view that the situation would
probably develop by stages: the first stage was the defiance
of the League with regard to the Constitution and a demand
for a revision of the Statute in that respect. This was
immediately followed by a number of declarations by President
- English (English)
[Copy in
yellow file]
Personal and
Confidential
Danzig, July 11th 1936.
Dear Avenol,
I enclose herewith a note of part of my conversation with
Colonel Beck, the Polish Minister for Foreign Affairs, on
Sunday, 5th instant, at Geneva. I have confined it more or
less to the precise point, but from the rest of the conversation,
of which I also have a note, there was no doubt as
to the anxiety with which Colonel Beck viewed the situation
and the significance he attached to the declarations at the
secret meeting of the Council the previous evening.
I saw Mr. Papée, the Polish Minister, on Thursday, the
9th instant. I recalled to him the declarations made by Mr.
Beck and his statements to me personally and said that the
only thing which remained in this connection was to make
arrangements as to communications with him in case the final
emergency should arise. I handed him a hote, of which I
enclose a copy. Having read itm Mr. Papée said that in such
circumstances he would of course at once communicate with his
Government and he had no doubt that they would fully comply
with all their obligations. As the only question which
remained to be settled here was the clear understanding as
to the method of communication, I withdrew my note some hours
later on the understanding that arrangements were complete
and that the note was therefore unecessary. The copy was
retained by Mr. Papée in order to be destroyed. The fact,
however, that it was on paper remains a record of the nature
of the conversation.
Mr. Papée as well as Colonel Beck, appreciated that the
responsibility conferred on me by the Council, and to which
I drew the Council's attention a week ago, wau regarded by
me as of the utmost gravity, and to be undertaken in the end
if necessary only with a very heavy heart.
Mr. Papée agreed with my view that the situation would
probably develop by stages: the first stage was the defiance
of the League with regard to the Constitution and a demand
for a revision of the Statute in that respect. This was
immediately followed by a number of declarations by President
Language(s) of Transcription
English Translation
Transcription History
[Copy in yellow file] Personal and Confidential Danzig, July 11th 1936. Dear Avenol, I enclose herewith a note of part of my conversation with Colonel Beck, the Polish Minister for Foreign Affairs, on Sunday, 5th instant, at Geneva. I have confined it more or less to the precise point, but from the rest of the conversation, of which I also have a note, there was no doubt as to the anxiety with which Colonel Beck viewed the situation and the significance he attached to the declarations at the secret meeting of the Council the previous evening. I saw Mr. Papée, the Polish Minister, on Thursday, the 9th instant. I recalled to him the declarations made by Mr. Beck and his statements to me personally and said that the only thing which remained in this connection was to make arrangements as to communications with him in case the final emergency should arise. I handed him a hote, of which I enclose a copy. Having read itm Mr. Papée said that in such circumstances he would of course at once communicate with his Government and he had no doubt that they would fully comply with all their obligations. As the only question which remained to be settled here was the clear understanding as to the method of communication, I withdrew my note some hours later on the understanding that arrangements were complete and that the note was therefore unecessary. The copy was retained by Mr. Papée in order to be destroyed. The fact, however, that it was on paper remains a record of the nature of the conversation. Mr. Papée as well as Colonel Beck, appreciated that the responsibility conferred on me by the Council, and to which I drew the Council's attention a week ago, wau regarded by me as of the utmost gravity, and to be undertaken in the end if necessary only with a very heavy heart. Mr. Papée agreed with my view that the situation would probably develop by stages: the first stage was the defiance of the League with regard to the Constitution and a demand for a revision of the Statute in that respect. This was immediately followed by a number of declarations by President
English Translation
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