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Diary 3: May 1936 - February 1937 Item 49
TRANSCRIPTION
Private Diary
August 7th 1936.
I had a conversation with Mr. Papée today before leaving
for my ten days holiday. I drew his attention to a decision of
the Press Court in the case of one of the recent suppressions.
In this judgment the Court said that one sentence alone in the
newspaper would have justified suppression for several months.
This sentence (I quote from memory) was to the effect that the
League of Nations had been during the past fifteen years, and was
today, one of the best guarantees for Germanism in Danzig.
I said to him that a decision of this kind was taken by me as a
symptom of the determination of the Government to break the
guarantee of the Constitution.
Papée remarked à propos of the Notes exchanged between
Warsaw and Berlin, of which he was not yet able to let me have
copies, but which had been sent to the President of the Council,
that any German attempt to make the incident during the reception
for the "Admiral Scheer" officers a year ago the foundation for
their refusal to call on the High Commissioner when the "Leipzig"
visited Danzig was altogether too thin. He gave me the impression
that his Government fully appreciated that any attempt to make
the "Leipzig" incident have a purely personal bearing was merely
a subterfuge. He referred again to the fact that the conversations
between Berlin and Warsaw were not yet finished, and I
remarked that I was not optimistic as to the outcome.
Mr. Papée again emphasised that Poland regarded her
interests in Danzig as vital, and he added quite clearly the
presence of the League in Danzig was also vital. Poland was
and would be prepared to fulfil all her obligations and he even
went so far as to say that if a mandate from the Council was not
given Poland might in certain circumstances be forced herself
to take the initiative.
I reported to him some of the stories circulating in Danzig
as to a complete Polish-German accord on the future of the
Free City. He described these reports as fantastic. He told
me that there was much uncertainty as to what degree of interest
either the League or its two principal members, France and
Britain, could or would show for Poland in support of the
maintenance of the status quo. He directed my attention to the
reaction which had been seen in the Danzig press to the decision
to renew Polish representation in Tschequo-Slovakia, and indicated
that the arrangements with France would be showh in the near
future to be reality. This was in response to my mentioning
the various rumours, and what appeared to be the continued
uncertainty in many quarters as to Polish policy. I said that
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
Private Diary
August 7th 1936.
I had a conversation with Mr. Papée today before leaving
for my ten days holiday. I drew his attention to a decision of
the Press Court in the case of one of the recent suppressions.
In this judgment the Court said that one sentence alone in the
newspaper would have justified suppression for several months.
This sentence (I quote from memory) was to the effect that the
League of Nations had been during the past fifteen years, and was
today, one of the best guarantees for Germanism in Danzig.
I said to him that a decision of this kind was taken by me as a
symptom of the determination of the Government to break the
guarantee of the Constitution.
Papée remarked à propos of the Notes exchanged between
Warsaw and Berlin, of which he was not yet able to let me have
copies, but which had been sent to the President of the Council,
that any German attempt to make the incident during the reception
for the "Admiral Scheer" officers a year ago the foundation for
their refusal to call on the High Commissioner when the "Leipzig"
visited Danzig was altogether too thin. He gave me the impression
that his Government fully appreciated that any attempt to make
the "Leipzig" incident have a purely personal bearing was merely
a subterfuge. He referred again to the fact that the conversations
between Berlin and Warsaw were not yet finished, and I
remarked that I was not optimistic as to the outcome.
Mr. Papée again emphasised that Poland regarded her
interests in Danzig as vital, and he added quite clearly the
presence of the League in Danzig was also vital. Poland was
and would be prepared to fulfil all her obligations and he even
went so far as to say that if a mandate from the Council was not
given Poland might in certain circumstances be forced herself
to take the initiative.
I reported to him some of the stories circulating in Danzig
as to a complete Polish-German accord on the future of the
Free City. He described these reports as fantastic. He told
me that there was much uncertainty as to what degree of interest
either the League or its two principal members, France and
Britain, could or would show for Poland in support of the
maintenance of the status quo. He directed my attention to the
reaction which had been seen in the Danzig press to the decision
to renew Polish representation in Tschequo-Slovakia, and indicated
that the arrangements with France would be showh in the near
future to be reality. This was in response to my mentioning
the various rumours, and what appeared to be the continued
uncertainty in many quarters as to Polish policy. I said that
- English (English)
Private Diary
August 7th 1936.
I had a conversation with Mr. Papée today before leaving
for my ten days holiday. I drew his attention to a decision of
the Press Court in the case of one of the recent suppressions.
In this judgment the Court said that one sentence alone in the
newspaper would have justified suppression for several months.
This sentence (I quote from memory) was to the effect that the
League of Nations had been during the past fifteen years, and was
today, one of the best guarantees for Germanism in Danzig.
I said to him that a decision of this kind was taken by me as a
symptom of the determination of the Government to break the
guarantee of the Constitution.
Papée remarked à propos of the Notes exchanged between
Warsaw and Berlin, of which he was not yet able to let me have
copies, but which had been sent to the President of the Council,
that any German attempt to make the incident during the reception
for the "Admiral Scheer" officers a year ago the foundation for
their refusal to call on the High Commissioner when the "Leipzig"
visited Danzig was altogether too thin. He gave me the impression
that his Government fully appreciated that any attempt to make
the "Leipzig" incident have a purely personal bearing was merely
a subterfuge. He referred again to the fact that the conversations
between Berlin and Warsaw were not yet finished, and I
remarked that I was not optimistic as to the outcome.
Mr. Papée again emphasised that Poland regarded her
interests in Danzig as vital, and he added quite clearly the
presence of the League in Danzig was also vital. Poland was
and would be prepared to fulfil all her obligations and he even
went so far as to say that if a mandate from the Council was not
given Poland might in certain circumstances be forced herself
to take the initiative.
I reported to him some of the stories circulating in Danzig
as to a complete Polish-German accord on the future of the
Free City. He described these reports as fantastic. He told
me that there was much uncertainty as to what degree of interest
either the League or its two principal members, France and
Britain, could or would show for Poland in support of the
maintenance of the status quo. He directed my attention to the
reaction which had been seen in the Danzig press to the decision
to renew Polish representation in Tschequo-Slovakia, and indicated
that the arrangements with France would be showh in the near
future to be reality. This was in response to my mentioning
the various rumours, and what appeared to be the continued
uncertainty in many quarters as to Polish policy. I said that
Language(s) of Transcription
English Translation
Transcription History
Private Diary August 7th 1936. I had a conversation with Mr. Papée today before leaving for my ten days holiday. I drew his attention to a decision of the Press Court in the case of one of the recent suppressions. In this judgment the Court said that one sentence alone in the newspaper would have justified suppression for several months. This sentence (I quote from memory) was to the effect that the League of Nations had been during the past fifteen years, and was today, one of the best guarantees for Germanism in Danzig. I said to him that a decision of this kind was taken by me as a symptom of the determination of the Government to break the guarantee of the Constitution. Papée remarked à propos of the Notes exchanged between Warsaw and Berlin, of which he was not yet able to let me have copies, but which had been sent to the President of the Council, that any German attempt to make the incident during the reception for the "Admiral Scheer" officers a year ago the foundation for their refusal to call on the High Commissioner when the "Leipzig" visited Danzig was altogether too thin. He gave me the impression that his Government fully appreciated that any attempt to make the "Leipzig" incident have a purely personal bearing was merely a subterfuge. He referred again to the fact that the conversations between Berlin and Warsaw were not yet finished, and I remarked that I was not optimistic as to the outcome. Mr. Papée again emphasised that Poland regarded her interests in Danzig as vital, and he added quite clearly the presence of the League in Danzig was also vital. Poland was and would be prepared to fulfil all her obligations and he even went so far as to say that if a mandate from the Council was not given Poland might in certain circumstances be forced herself to take the initiative. I reported to him some of the stories circulating in Danzig as to a complete Polish-German accord on the future of the Free City. He described these reports as fantastic. He told me that there was much uncertainty as to what degree of interest either the League or its two principal members, France and Britain, could or would show for Poland in support of the maintenance of the status quo. He directed my attention to the reaction which had been seen in the Danzig press to the decision to renew Polish representation in Tschequo-Slovakia, and indicated that the arrangements with France would be showh in the near future to be reality. This was in response to my mentioning the various rumours, and what appeared to be the continued uncertainty in many quarters as to Polish policy. I said that
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