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Diary 3: May 1936 - February 1937 Item 53
TRANSCRIPTION
- 2 -
another fait accompli: the destruction of the
guarantee of the Constitution; and I do not see what
the outcome can be. The Germans have tried to force
my resignation by means of the famous "nerve test",
and thus simplify the fait accompli policy. I naturally
have no longing to remain here, but am equally
determined that if I leave Danzig in these circumstances
it will be made clear in public that it is
not because of any failure on my own part to carry
out Council instructions with discretion and tact
but simply due to the change of policy in Germany
and the weakness of the League.
The Poles have received a reply on the cruiser
"Leipzig" incident which is not satisfactory, but
which certainly has shown a desire to withdraw
somewhat on the first demands voiced through Greiser
and an effort is made to limit the difficulty to a
so-called personal issue on account of the scene
created by Greiser last year when the ship "Admiral
Scheer" was here. This pretext is too thin even for
the Poles and they have been endeavouring, but so far
without success, to get any further move in the German
position. Another German ship was due to arrive in
Danzig at the end of August, and I am inclined to
think that it was due to Polish representation that
this visit was concelled. It would have meant a
repetition of the slight to the League, and Poland
would have been put into an impossible position if
her representative had accepted the German courtesies
in such circumstances.
My experiences in Danzig have certainly shown
me some novelties in modern diplomatic life and this
summer the conduct of the German Government in its
Progaganda Ministry and otherwise has been amazingly
unscrupulous. One does not expect from any Government
behavious such as one expects from a gentleman, but
the dirtiness of German policy in the circumstances
has, I know, been a shock to many decent Germans, and
I am sure not least to many of their old diplomats
who know me personally. The unscrupulousness of
people like Greiser and Böttcher is of a different
character, one expects at any rate less from people
of this kind: Greiser because he is a simple man
without any principles except those of obedience
to his leaders, Böttcher partly because he is most
unnaturally stupid. It has been a tragedy for
Greiser that he has not had a man of some intelligence
to give him advice, not as to policy, which he does
not himself make, but as to methods of obtaining
the same aims. Böttcher's remarks to foreigners
here almost invariably reach me. I recall that about
a year ago, when personal relations were supposed
to be excellent and to an English journalist he
compared the German-Polish national relationship
with the English-Irish on the basis of the two
inferior races, and the English journalist, who
was quite friendly to Ireland, reported it to me,
greatly to my amusement. He has now advanced to
a somewhat more personal line of insult and the
American Consul's story to me the other day brightened
a whole morning. An American talking to Böttcher
asked him some question about the High Commissioner,
and he replied by saying the High Commissioner was
a little man with a long nose! I suppose this is
on a par with his spiritual guide the "Stürmer", whic
some weeks ago published photographs of Greiser and
myself, together, my own photograph having been
touched up a little, and this distinguished newspaper,
which has for some time been under the direct control
of the German Ministry for Propaganda, compared our
personal appearances, naturally to my disadvantage.
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
- 2 -
another fait accompli: the destruction of the
guarantee of the Constitution; and I do not see what
the outcome can be. The Germans have tried to force
my resignation by means of the famous "nerve test",
and thus simplify the fait accompli policy. I naturally
have no longing to remain here, but am equally
determined that if I leave Danzig in these circumstances
it will be made clear in public that it is
not because of any failure on my own part to carry
out Council instructions with discretion and tact
but simply due to the change of policy in Germany
and the weakness of the League.
The Poles have received a reply on the cruiser
"Leipzig" incident which is not satisfactory, but
which certainly has shown a desire to withdraw
somewhat on the first demands voiced through Greiser
and an effort is made to limit the difficulty to a
so-called personal issue on account of the scene
created by Greiser last year when the ship "Admiral
Scheer" was here. This pretext is too thin even for
the Poles and they have been endeavouring, but so far
without success, to get any further move in the German
position. Another German ship was due to arrive in
Danzig at the end of August, and I am inclined to
think that it was due to Polish representation that
this visit was concelled. It would have meant a
repetition of the slight to the League, and Poland
would have been put into an impossible position if
her representative had accepted the German courtesies
in such circumstances.
My experiences in Danzig have certainly shown
me some novelties in modern diplomatic life and this
summer the conduct of the German Government in its
Progaganda Ministry and otherwise has been amazingly
unscrupulous. One does not expect from any Government
behavious such as one expects from a gentleman, but
the dirtiness of German policy in the circumstances
has, I know, been a shock to many decent Germans, and
I am sure not least to many of their old diplomats
who know me personally. The unscrupulousness of
people like Greiser and Böttcher is of a different
character, one expects at any rate less from people
of this kind: Greiser because he is a simple man
without any principles except those of obedience
to his leaders, Böttcher partly because he is most
unnaturally stupid. It has been a tragedy for
Greiser that he has not had a man of some intelligence
to give him advice, not as to policy, which he does
not himself make, but as to methods of obtaining
the same aims. Böttcher's remarks to foreigners
here almost invariably reach me. I recall that about
a year ago, when personal relations were supposed
to be excellent and to an English journalist he
compared the German-Polish national relationship
with the English-Irish on the basis of the two
inferior races, and the English journalist, who
was quite friendly to Ireland, reported it to me,
greatly to my amusement. He has now advanced to
a somewhat more personal line of insult and the
American Consul's story to me the other day brightened
a whole morning. An American talking to Böttcher
asked him some question about the High Commissioner,
and he replied by saying the High Commissioner was
a little man with a long nose! I suppose this is
on a par with his spiritual guide the "Stürmer", whic
some weeks ago published photographs of Greiser and
myself, together, my own photograph having been
touched up a little, and this distinguished newspaper,
which has for some time been under the direct control
of the German Ministry for Propaganda, compared our
personal appearances, naturally to my disadvantage.
- English (English)
- 2 -
another fait accompli: the destruction of the
guarantee of the Constitution; and I do not see what
the outcome can be. The Germans have tried to force
my resignation by means of the famous "nerve test",
and thus simplify the fait accompli policy. I naturally
have no longing to remain here, but am equally
determined that if I leave Danzig in these circumstances
it will be made clear in public that it is
not because of any failure on my own part to carry
out Council instructions with discretion and tact
but simply due to the change of policy in Germany
and the weakness of the League.
The Poles have received a reply on the cruiser
"Leipzig" incident which is not satisfactory, but
which certainly has shown a desire to withdraw
somewhat on the first demands voiced through Greiser
and an effort is made to limit the difficulty to a
so-called personal issue on account of the scene
created by Greiser last year when the ship "Admiral
Scheer" was here. This pretext is too thin even for
the Poles and they have been endeavouring, but so far
without success, to get any further move in the German
position. Another German ship was due to arrive in
Danzig at the end of August, and I am inclined to
think that it was due to Polish representation that
this visit was concelled. It would have meant a
repetition of the slight to the League, and Poland
would have been put into an impossible position if
her representative had accepted the German courtesies
in such circumstances.
My experiences in Danzig have certainly shown
me some novelties in modern diplomatic life and this
summer the conduct of the German Government in its
Progaganda Ministry and otherwise has been amazingly
unscrupulous. One does not expect from any Government
behavious such as one expects from a gentleman, but
the dirtiness of German policy in the circumstances
has, I know, been a shock to many decent Germans, and
I am sure not least to many of their old diplomats
who know me personally. The unscrupulousness of
people like Greiser and Böttcher is of a different
character, one expects at any rate less from people
of this kind: Greiser because he is a simple man
without any principles except those of obedience
to his leaders, Böttcher partly because he is most
unnaturally stupid. It has been a tragedy for
Greiser that he has not had a man of some intelligence
to give him advice, not as to policy, which he does
not himself make, but as to methods of obtaining
the same aims. Böttcher's remarks to foreigners
here almost invariably reach me. I recall that about
a year ago, when personal relations were supposed
to be excellent and to an English journalist he
compared the German-Polish national relationship
with the English-Irish on the basis of the two
inferior races, and the English journalist, who
was quite friendly to Ireland, reported it to me,
greatly to my amusement. He has now advanced to
a somewhat more personal line of insult and the
American Consul's story to me the other day brightened
a whole morning. An American talking to Böttcher
asked him some question about the High Commissioner,
and he replied by saying the High Commissioner was
a little man with a long nose! I suppose this is
on a par with his spiritual guide the "Stürmer", whic
some weeks ago published photographs of Greiser and
myself, together, my own photograph having been
touched up a little, and this distinguished newspaper,
which has for some time been under the direct control
of the German Ministry for Propaganda, compared our
personal appearances, naturally to my disadvantage.
Language(s) of Transcription
English Translation
Transcription History
- 2 - another fait accompli: the destruction of the guarantee of the Constitution; and I do not see what the outcome can be. The Germans have tried to force my resignation by means of the famous "nerve test", and thus simplify the fait accompli policy. I naturally have no longing to remain here, but am equally determined that if I leave Danzig in these circumstances it will be made clear in public that it is not because of any failure on my own part to carry out Council instructions with discretion and tact but simply due to the change of policy in Germany and the weakness of the League. The Poles have received a reply on the cruiser "Leipzig" incident which is not satisfactory, but which certainly has shown a desire to withdraw somewhat on the first demands voiced through Greiser and an effort is made to limit the difficulty to a so-called personal issue on account of the scene created by Greiser last year when the ship "Admiral Scheer" was here. This pretext is too thin even for the Poles and they have been endeavouring, but so far without success, to get any further move in the German position. Another German ship was due to arrive in Danzig at the end of August, and I am inclined to think that it was due to Polish representation that this visit was concelled. It would have meant a repetition of the slight to the League, and Poland would have been put into an impossible position if her representative had accepted the German courtesies in such circumstances. My experiences in Danzig have certainly shown me some novelties in modern diplomatic life and this summer the conduct of the German Government in its Progaganda Ministry and otherwise has been amazingly unscrupulous. One does not expect from any Government behavious such as one expects from a gentleman, but the dirtiness of German policy in the circumstances has, I know, been a shock to many decent Germans, and I am sure not least to many of their old diplomats who know me personally. The unscrupulousness of people like Greiser and Böttcher is of a different character, one expects at any rate less from people of this kind: Greiser because he is a simple man without any principles except those of obedience to his leaders, Böttcher partly because he is most unnaturally stupid. It has been a tragedy for Greiser that he has not had a man of some intelligence to give him advice, not as to policy, which he does not himself make, but as to methods of obtaining the same aims. Böttcher's remarks to foreigners here almost invariably reach me. I recall that about a year ago, when personal relations were supposed to be excellent and to an English journalist he compared the German-Polish national relationship with the English-Irish on the basis of the two inferior races, and the English journalist, who was quite friendly to Ireland, reported it to me, greatly to my amusement. He has now advanced to a somewhat more personal line of insult and the American Consul's story to me the other day brightened a whole morning. An American talking to Böttcher asked him some question about the High Commissioner, and he replied by saying the High Commissioner was a little man with a long nose! I suppose this is on a par with his spiritual guide the "Stürmer", whic some weeks ago published photographs of Greiser and myself, together, my own photograph having been touched up a little, and this distinguished newspaper, which has for some time been under the direct control of the German Ministry for Propaganda, compared our personal appearances, naturally to my disadvantage.
English Translation
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