Free City of Danziq
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[Distributed to the Official No. : 0 377 1930. I. Members of the Council.] , , Geneva, July 10th, 1930. LEAGUE OF NATIONS FREE CITY OF DANZIQ GENERAL REPORT BY THE HIGH COMMISSIONER Note by the Secretary-General. The Secretary-General has the honour to circulate to the Council the annual general report by the High Commissioner of the League of Nations at Danzig dated May 31st,. 1930. In his letter of June 20th, 1930, the High Commissioner asked the Secretary-General to note that, although the report contained nothing confidential, it was addressed to the Members of the Council and the Government of Danzig for their information and that no part of it was intended for publication. The appendices to the report are enumerated in the attached list of contents. 1 For the High Commissioner’s last general report, see document C.221.1929 -1- — 3 — LIST OF CONTENTS. Page 1. General Situation at D a n z ig ............................................................................................ 4 2. Internal Political Crisis............................................................................................... .... 5 3. Relations between Danzig and P o lan d ........................................................... 5 4. The Harbour B o a r d ............................................................... 6 5. Relations between the Free City and the Soviet U n io n ........................................... 7 6. Visits of Foreign Warships to D a n z ig ........................................................................... 7 7. High Commissioner's Right of Veto on Treaties applying to the Free C ity............... 7 8. Participation in, and Accession to, Treaties and International Agreements by the Free City, and Agreements concluded between Danzig and Poland from May 1st, 1929, till May 31st, 1930 .................................................................................................... 7 9. Railways of the Free C i t y ................................................................................................ 7 10. Liquidation of an Estate belonging to a Danzig National, M. von Ruetzen Kositzkau 7 11. Recognition by the Danzig Authorities of Degrees and Educational Certificates obtained in Poland by Danzig Nationals belonging to the Polish Minority . 8 12. Customs................................................................... 8 13. Miscellaneous (Housing, Pensions, Industry, Wheat Agreement, Agriculture) . 8 L i s t o f A p p e n d i c e s . I. Agreement signed at Berlin on February 24th, 1930, between the Free City of Danzig and the- Svenska Tândsticks Aktiebolaget, with a Supplement dated May 1st, 1 9 3 0 ................................................ 9 II. The Free City of Danzig 6 % Secured External Sinking Fund Gold Bonds, due February 1st, 1965 : Loan Agreement signed at Berlin on May 30th, 1930, between the Free City of Danzig and the Svenska Tândsticks Aktiebolaget and the N.V. Financieele Maatschappij Kreuger & T o ll................................ 13 III. Report of the Senate of Danzig, dated April 1930, on the Economic and Financial Situation of Danzig, with Two Sub-Appendices : (а) Danziger Wirtschaftszeitung of January 25th, 1930, entitled “ Ten Years of the Economic Life of Danzig ” 1 ............................ 24 (б) Table showing the Number of Registered Unemployed and the Number of Persons in Receipt of Unemployment Relief in the Territory of the Free City of Danzig, together with the Actual Expenditure of the State (exclusive of the Share of the Communes) in Unemployment Relief as from April 1st, 1 9 2 4 ................................ 25 IV a and IVb. Two Memoranda from the Senate of Danzig concerning the Carrying-out of the Recommendations made by the Financial Committee of the League of Nations in 1 9 2 6 .................................................................................................. 26 V. Opinion given by the Supreme Court of Danzig on April 12th, 1930, regarding the Composition of the Senate 2 .................................................................................... 3° I VI. Report dated April 7th, 1930, by the President of the Harbour Board on the Activity and the Development of the Port of Danzig . ................................ 30 VI a. Letter dated May 19th, 1930, from the President of the Harbour Board addressed to the High Commissioner, concerning the Ports of Danzig and Gdynia . 35 VII. Questions submitted to the High Commissioner for Decision under Article 39 of the Danzig-Polish Treaty of November 9th, 1 9 2 0 ........................................- 37 VII a. Decision dated April 14th, 1930, of the Harbour Board, concerning the Reorgani sation of the Financial Department 3.............................................................................39 VIII. Regulations regarding the Giving of Naval Honours by Foreign Warships visiting the Free City of Danzig, dated February 1st, 1930........................................ 39 IX. Participation of Danzig in International Treaties and Agreements concluded between May 1st, 1929, and May 31st, 1 9 3 0 ........................ 39 1 This number of the Danziger Wirtschaftszeitung is kept at the Secretariat at the disposal of the Members of the Council. 2 This opinion has been communicated to the Council by document C.354.1930.I. 3 This document is kept at the Secretariat at the disposal of the Members of the Council. S -<I-N. 2 5 0 ( F .) 1 6 0 ( A .) 6 / 3 0 . I m p . K u n d i g . — 4 — ANNUAL REPORT. [!Translation.] Danzig, May 31st, 1930. To the Secretary-General. I have the honour to send you for the information of the Members of the Council the annual report on the general situation at Danzig and on questions arising out of the relations between Danzig and Poland. 1. G e n e r a l S it u a t io n a t D a n z ig . My predecessors’ numerous reports must be my excuse for only touching briefly upon matters already dealt with by them. I shall merely consider here the salient features of the present position of the Free City. It is suffering from a constantly increasing economic depression that affects every class of the population and is, after all, only the natural consequence of the general economic crisis through which all European countries, including Poland, are now passing. In view of the inevitable demands made upon a great city, which possesses what may perhaps be regarded as disproportionately large administrative and bureaucratic machinery, the position of Danzig is rendered peculiarly difficult by the present economic depression. The most striking immediate result of this state of affairs is fresh tension in the relations between Danzig and Poland. There is indeed a tendency in Danzig to hold Poland primarily responsible for every misfortune from which the Free City is suffering. The present economic and financial situation is not unlike that during the summer of 1926, when, at the request of the Senate, the High Commissioner asked the League to hold an investigation. It should, however, be pointed out that the present position is considerably worse ; there has not only been a large increase in unemployment but, what is more serious, the remedies applied since 1926 have been exhausted without its having been possible even to stem the crisis. The situation has, however, once more been saved by the introduction of the matches monopoly at Danzig. Under the terms of the agreement signed on February 24th, 1930 (Appendix I), at Berlin by the representatives of the Free City and the Svenska Tândsticks Aktiebolaget, the latter has obtained a monopoly for thirty-five years for the exclusive manu facture and sale of matches in the territory of the Free City, in return for the immediate payment of one million gulden. Under another agreement, also concluded on May 30th, 1930, between the Free City and the Svenska Tândsticks Aktiebolaget and N.V. Financieele Maatschappij Kreuger & Toll, the Free City received a loan of one million dollars bearing interest at 6 per cent, redeemable in thirty-five years (see Appendix II). The agreements relating to the monopoly and the supplementary agreements were ratified by the Volkstag on April 15th, 1930. Nevertheless, everything points to the fact that the financial depression is likely to get worse in the near future, unless the Government adopts radical measures, which I am hardly qualified to discuss in detail here. Appendix III contains a report by the Senate of the Free City on the general economic and financial situation, with which might usefully be read the report submitted to the Council on July 29th, 1926, by the Financial Committee of the League of Nations on the financial and economic situation of Danzig at that time.1 In reply to enquiries as to what had been done to give practical effect to the suggestions and recommendations made by the Financial Committee on that occasion, Dr. Kamnitzer, the Senator responsible for the financial administration of the Free City, gave me the attached memorandum (Appendices IVa and b).IV I regard it as a matter for regret, as I have pointed out to the responsible authorities, that Danzig has continued to give important and correspondingly well-paid posts to persons who are not Danzig nationals. This happened again recently when a successor had to be found to Dr. Laue, the “ Oberbürgermeister ” of Zoppot, when he resigned. The draft amendment to the Constitution, which has passed its first reading in the Volkstag, provided that Senators relinquishing their duties shall be given an opportunity of