LEAGUE OF NATIONS.
qoanunicated “to C*4-7S*1933*I# Thé"Cou^cïT^ '— ~ Geneva, August 14th, 1933,
FREE CITY OF DANZIG.
SITUATION IN DANZIG.
Note by the Secretary-General.
Further to document C«331.1933.I end with reference to document C.463.1933.I, the Secretary-General has the honour, at the request of the High Commissioner of the League of Nations in Danzig, to communicate to the Council for information a letter, with annex, which the High Commissioner addressed to him on July 25th, 1933.
Translation. THE HIGH COMMISSIONER, ------LEAGUE OF NATIONS, THE FREE CITY OF DANZIG.
Danzig, July 25th, 1933.
To the Secretary-General of the League of Nations, Geneva.
Sir, With reference to my letter of July 6th, communicating
to you the text of the judgment given on June 23rd, 1933, by the
Danzig Landgericht (Court of second instance) in the case of the
trade unions, I have the honour to transmit to you herewith, wit.1
the request that it be communicated to the members of the Council,
a supplementary petition which was lodged with me on July 25th,
1933, by one of the secretaries of the trade unions which were
signatories of the petition of May 13th, 1933 (see Document
C.331.1933.1.)•
I will duly forward to you any observations which the
Senate sends to me on this subject.
I have the honour to be, etc.
(Signed) Helmer R03TING,
High Commissioner. - 2 -
SUPPLEMENT
TO THE
PETITION SUBMITTED TO THE
HIG-H COMMISSIONER
OH VAY 15 th, 1935,
I.
Before the detachment of Danzig from the German Reich the "free” trade union movement in Danzig naturally formed part of the German trade union movement as a vttole. This necessarily ceased to be the case when the Free City of Danzig was brought into being, It is true that in the case of the unions of a number of particular trades in Danzig certain connections with the corresponding unions in Germany were maintain ed on the practical ground of community of cultural and social conditions, and in particular in virtue of the legal considera tions arising in connection with the property of the former imder the new regime. Certain unions (e.g, the Railwaymenfs Union) made provision in their statutes for complete separation from Germany»
In so far as a certain connection still remained in these circumstances, it was a matter exclusively of organisation, and could not be otherwise. The real functions of the trade unions, namely the representation of the workers in relation to the employers and the defence of their rights in relation to the authorities and Courts of the Free City, could only be exercised by the Danzig unions under the new regime, by acting independently and alone, having regard to the special circumstances of Danzig and to the provisions of Danzig law. 3 -
The events of May 1933 in Germany led to the German "free" unions being dissolved or at any rate deprived of their character as ’’free" unions. They, in common with all other trade unions in
Germany, then came under National Socialist leadership.
II.
For the purpose of extending these conditions to Danzig, the following procedure was adopted.
Herr Ernst Kendzia of Danzig-Langfuhr applied for, and obtained, a Provisional Order from the Danzig Court of first instance (Amtsgerioht) against the Danzig trade unions and their leaders to the effect that all the capital assets of the Danzig unions were immediately to be handed over to himself. His Applica tion was based on the fact that under an Order of the Leader of the National Socialist German Workers Party in Germany, published in the MV51kischer Beobachter", a certain Herr Schumann had been appointed Head of the Workers’ Associations, and had delegated his powers in respect of the Free City to Kendzia.
The Danzig Amtsgericht disallowed the substance of the objection to the issue of the Provisional Order, and upheld the
Order and the Powers claimed by Kendzia on the ground that he had obtained possession of them by right of revolutionary law (durch revolutionSres Recht).
Comment on this decision of the Court is contained in a first Memorandum, which, for completeness, is attached to the present Memorandum as an Annex.
On appeal the Sixth Chamber (Civil) of the Danzig Court of second instance (Landgericht) disallowed the Provisional Order only in so far as it was directed against the Danzig trade unions as such, nr against certain persons not concerned as leaders of the
same, and upheld it in relation to the leaders c£ the Danzig unions. - 4 -
The Landgerichtf s decision was based on the following considerations :
"In the period immediately following the elections
to the German Reichstag of March 5th, 1933, as a result
of which the National Parties in Germany, and the National
Socialist German Workers Party in particular, at length
came into power, there was a progressive fbringing into
line’ (Gleichschaltung) of the trade union associations
and workers1 organisations in the Reich: that is to say}
an increasingly large number of trade union associations
and workers' organisations, e0g*, the 'Christian* trade
unions in Germany, together with unorganised workers, ralli
ed to the new national movement, accepted the aims and
objects of the National Socialist Party as the Party at
the head of the national movement in Germany, and there
by placed themselves under the leadership of Adolf Hitler
as the Supreme Leader of the National Socialist Party.
"This was equally true of the central associations
of the 'free' trade unions and the General German Associa
tion of Trade Unions (Allgemeiner deutscher Gewerkschaftë-
bund)♦ Whether - as the Applicant in his Application
maintains, supporting his contention by a sworn statement
of Ludwig Brucker, nominee of the Reich Labour Minister
for the post of Head of the Reich Central Association
of Health Insurance Offices, Chief Editor Friederich
Fikentscher, and Association Syndic Helmut Reichnow,
dated June 10th, 1933 - the General Association of Trade “ 5 “
Unions had actually already "been f"brought into line* with the National Socialist Works Organisation on April
13th, 1933, at a meeting between the accredited representatives of the latter on the one hand and four members of the Managing Beard of the General Association
(Leipart, Grassmann, Eggert and Leuschner) on the other, is a matter cn which no opinion need bo expressed, The
General Association at any rate was ’brought j. into lino* ; and this development was followed shortly afterwards on May 21st, 1933, by similar action in the case of the
’free* unions in Germany of which the General Association is the central organisation, That is to say, the ’free- unions in Germany also all placed themselves under the leadership of the National Socialist Party and declared their acceptance of its aims and objects, and explicitly or tacitly submitted to Hitler's Leadership0 This development creates at any rate a new legal position in the case of the General Association and of the individual trade union associations, which must be taken into account as the basis of m y estimate of the legal situation in
Germany. Whether the process was at all points in accordance with existing rights of combination and association is a matter on which no opinion need be expressed in this connection, The point is not therefore whether objection to these proceedings was raised in any quarter concerned, or whether particular parties concerned submitted only because they were compelled to do so, as the Opponents of the Application contend. - 6 -
"In pursuenee of these proceedings Hitler as Leader
of the National Socialist Party issued an Order on May
10th, 1933, in which he further appointed the head of the National Socialist Works Organisation as leader
of the workers' associations. The subsequent publica
tion of this Order of May 10th, 1933, in the leading
organ of the National Socialist movement in Germany»
the "V31kischer Beobachter,r, on May 11th, 1933, is not
otherwise intelligiblec The Court is unable to fo IIott
the argument of the Judge in the previous Court that the
Order in question was issued by right of revolutionary
law. It is no more than a case of administrative
action by the Leader in the exercise of the powers con
ferred on him.
"Such is the existing legal position in Germany
as a result of the national revolution, and it must be
taken as the starting-point of any scrutiny of the powers (Akt 1 vlegitimation) of the Applicant to apply to
the Courts in the present dispute0
"By their submission the * free’ trade unions in Germany and the General German Association of Trade Unions
have made themselves subject to the orders of the Supreme
Leader and/or the chief appointed by him.
"The submission was unreserved, and its logical
consequence (as the event showed) was the transference -
in accordance with the principle of leadership for which
the Party has always stood - of all rights appertaining
to the former organs of association (Managing Board, Committees or Congresses) to the accredited person, namely
Schumann. Schumann's authority in his turn to appoint, subordinate
officers and delegate his powers to them is also in accordance
with the principle of leadership referred to, and may he assumed
without question, The Applicant lays claim to the rights of a
subordinate officer so appointed and empowered, and has shown
proof of the delegation of such rights by the submission of the
telegram from Schumann dated May 12th, 1933. The Applicant’s powers are restricted in two respects only :
"First, it has to be considered whether Schumann’s powers,
and consequently the powers of the Applicant, extend to the workers' organisations in the territory of the Free City of Danzig, that is to say, outside the territory of the German Reich.
"Further, il has to be considered whether the rights
claimed by the Applicant under the Provisional Order are covered
by Schumann’s actual powers, or whether they go beyond those powers
The Landgericht concludes on the basis of considerations
of fact that the answer to both these questions can only be
in the sense of confirming the powers of the Applicant (Kendzia)„
The objection that an extension to Danzig territory of rights conferred on Schumann, a German of the Reich, and delegated by
bin to Kendzia, constitutes an infringement of the freedom of
combination (Koalitionsrecht) guaranteed by the Danzig Constitu
tion is rejected by the Landgericht in the following terms :
"It appears from the wording of the Application . , .
and of the Provisional Order of the Court of first instanc
in pursuance of the Application, that the Opponents of
the Application -°re only prohibited from the exercise of - 8 -
activities in connection with the unions of which thëy have hitherto been the heads. Their contention that the Provisional
Order restricts the freedom of association guaranteed by Articles
85 and 113 of the Constitution thus falls to the ground. On the other hand, as the administration of the property of the organisations in question is entrusted to the Applicant, and as he can only administer It if it is handed over to him, the
Application to that effect (No.l) is justified.”
III.
The LandgerichtTs Judgment is based on three findings, namely, that :
1. The German "free" trade unions have, de facto at any
rate, submitted to the leadership of the National
Socialist German Workers Party;
2. The totality of this submission is a logical con
sequence of the principle of leadership for which
the National Socialists stand;
3. This submission also applies to the Danzig trade
unions, owing to the existing connections of the
latter with the German unions for purposes of
organisation.
With this single sentence to the effect that rights belonging to the former organs of association to the National
Socialist nominee, Schumann, is in accordance with the National
Socialist principle of leadership, the Court passes over all the objections raised by the Opponents of the Application to the purely political process of "bringing” bodies which play
important part in public life "into line" with the policy of National Socialism. - 9 “
The current law of association in force in Germany and
in Danzig knows nothing of any such dependence of the mongers of
associations on the will of the managing bodies they elect for
purposes, not of leadership, but of administrai!on. The lav/
in this matter is based on the conception of the corporate com
bination of the members for the attainment pf the purposes they
have in view as formulated in their Statutes. The Civil Code
(Bürgerliches Gesetzbuch) accordingly leaves complete freedom
to associations in respect of the form they may assume, and that
even in their relation to the State, It confines itself to
ensuring that the'members have an equal share in the moral ana
material assets of the association.
Minorities are protected against changes in the pur poses of the association by the provision (§ 33ÿ paragraph 1,
sentence 2 of the Civil Code) that the consent of all the
members is legally required for any such changes ; and the
Supreme Court of the Reich (Reichsgericht) has expressly inter
preted this provision as meaning that a decision by a majority
of members to change the purposes of an association involves
the withdrawal of the majority from the association, and that
the minority are in such case entitled to carry on the
association (Vol.119, pp.184 ff. of the Decisions of the Supreme
Court). This principle as clearly enunciated by the highest
German Court must govern the v&ole law of association. Where
the Statutes of an association expressly stipulate specific
exceptional powers for the regularly appointed organs of the
association, such powers may be valid ; but there is no question
of leaving the fate of associations to be determined by third
parties or by the State or referring, as the Judgment does,
to "de facto developments". - 10 -
Nor can there be any question of the organs of an
association having power to compel the association to submit
to any leadership other than that of the organs eleoted by, and
dependent on, the members as a whole.
The crucial point therefore "of the Landgericht*s
décision is the open recognition of the "revolutionary" penetra
tion end transformation of the civil law of corporations, even
though the Landgericht rejects the Amtsgericht*s use of the
expression "right of revolutionary law". The point which the
Landgericht was called upon to decide was whether those powers
and forces, which in Germany have induced a dissolution and
transformation of hitherto accepted legal conceptions, are also
entitled to intervene in the shaping of the legal system of a
foreign State. To suggest, as the Landgericht does, in
agreement with the Amtsgericht and the Applicant, that the rights
at issue are only Private Law rights, is to beg the question.
The deprivation of Danzig citizens of their rights as a result
of legal developments in another State could only be tolerated
if the parties affected assented to such a metamorphosis of
their internal affairs. The influence of members of German
trade unions living outside Germany is not forfeited because the
organisation of a single party enjoying the protection of all
the resources of the German State has obtained the mastery over
every other organisation.
Nor again is it correct to represent the issue as a
question of civil rights with repercussions beyond the Reich
borders. The Landgericht itself states that the appointment
°f Herr Schumann was an administrative order by the German - 11 -
Chancellor in his capacity as Leader of the National Socialist
Party, In view of the complete identification in Germany of the power of the State with the will of this Partÿ5 such an order represents a step towards the subjection of the trade unions to the rule of the Reich or of the Commissioner set up by the Reich or Socialist Party under the protection of the
Reich. The effect of such interference beyond the borders of the Reich is therefore to subject foreign corporations to the dictates of the German Government, and this can never be treated as an issue of Private Law.
The fact that Herr Schumann does not himself take action in Danzig, but causes action to be taken by his nominee Hevr Kendzia, does not constitute a safeguard against such interference, since Herr Kendzia is dependent, on
Herr Schumann's directions. Herr Kendzia appears as Applicant in place of Herr Schumann for the purely formal reascsi that the Danzig Government can only deal with a Danzig trade union.
The Opponents of the Application in raising the question of Herr Kendzia's power to apply to the Courts
(Aktivlegitimation) had no intention of asking the Landgericht to consider the legality of events in Germany. But they asked, and were bound to ask, whether the legal position resulting from a political development in Germany could be allowed to deprive Danzig citizens of their rights. This question the Landgericht has left unanswered. Even if it ttere true, as the Landgericht in the latter part of its judgment asserts, that the Danzig trade unions are organically - 12 -
no more than subordinate sections of the German trade unions, that would not alter the fact that legally the Danzig unions are governed solely by Danzig law. So long as the Civil
Code still holds in Danzig, and - even more - so long as the
Statute of the Free City is there to protect the rights of members, no development in a foreign country can have any bearing on the persons or properties of Danzig citizens,
The effect of the right of combination (Koalitions- recht) which the Constitution guarantees is not exhausted with the establishment' of the right to form corporations. That right is indeed implicit in the principle of freedom of association. A far more essential and important corollary of the right of combination is the right of the workers to determine the nature and purpose of trade union activities by their own influence. Where this is no longer possible - and it is not possible consistently with the National Socialist ideology and the principle of "leadership" to which the
Landgericht itself directs attention - the basic idea of the right of combination is pro tan to stultified, and with it the Danzig Constitution. This standpoint finds expression in § 30 of the Law in Introduction of the Civil Code (Ein- ftlhrungsgesetz zum Btlrgerlichen Gesetzbuch) which contains the following reference to Danzig : "No foreign law shall be enforceable in Danzig, if its enforcement conflicts with public morality or the purpose of a Danzig law". - 13 -
The Danzig trade unions, if they were dependent fôr purposes of organisation on the German unions, were, and are, nevertheless institutions playing an important publio part in
the Danzig State in connection with wage questions, arbitration,
Labour jurisdiction and the training which they provide for their members in civic rights and duties ; and these functions
can never be surrendered to a foreign corporation, least of all
to a corporation which is henceforward bound to follow directly the instructions of a foreign State.
The legal position of labour as a whole (the principles of which are laid down in § 115 of the Danzig Con stitution and developed in concrete form in the Law concerning
the Establishment of Workers’ Committees of August 31st, 1926) is grounded in the right of the workers to delegate representa tives enjoying their confidence to negotiate collective wage agreements and to co-operate in the fixing of working con ditions and the settlement of labour disputes. This right is made of no account, if the officials of the trade unions, to whom the conservation of these privileges has hitherto been entrusted by the legislature, are to be nominated from outside and no longer to be elected or to require the confidence of the mass of the workers. The whole idea of industrial arbitration and labour jurisdiction is vitiated, if the interests of labour are no longer to be in the keeping of elected representatives of the workers but are to be handed over to the nominees of a. Party. Nothing remains of the rights enshrined in 8§ 113 and 115 of the Constitution and in
the legislative enactments in execution of these Articles, if
the attitude of the representatives of the workers’ interests
is to tie dependent on the dictates of a political doctrine
Prevailing in a foreign State. - 14 -
The Landgerichtfs Judgment further ignores the point that the right of combination as guaranteed in § 113 of the Danzig Constitution prohibits, not merely State
interference, but the interferenco of any element whatsoever in the corporations ■which the workers have created to protect their economic and political interests, The constitutional and legal rights which belong to the workers’ corporations set up under §§ 113 and 115 of the Constitution cannot be waived and cannot be ceded. 3ven a voluntary submission of the trade unions to the domination of the NSBO such as is alleged to have taken place in Germany, would be contrary to the Danzig Constitution and consequently invalid. The assumption in the Judgment of the Court that it is only
"a logical consequence” of the change in the legal position in Germany that the Danzig trade unions should be subjected to German law is even more inadmissible.
In consideration therefore of the fact that
Public Law rights of the workers, guaranteed by the Consti tution , are infringed, if not annulled, when developments in Germany are allowed to affect the Danzig trade unions, it was not for a Danzig Court to give way to the desire of the present leaders of the German trade unions to capture the leadership of the Danzig unions, even if the latter were dependent on the German unions for financial and organisa tory purposes. - 15 -
IV.
But even the dependence of the Danzig trade unions on the German trade unions for purposes of organisation is exaggerated by the Landgericht.
The only connection between the General Association of Trade Unions of the *ree City ofcd the General German
Association of Trade Unions was in respect of the conduct of international relations, which for obvious reasons of con venience was left in the hands of the latter* This connection of the two Associations in relation to foreign countries was undoubtedly admissible, so long as a far-reaching identity of culture ana political forms in feet existed, and was likely to continue, as between Germany and Danzig.
The relation of the individual Danzig trade unions to the German trade unions was similar in kind. Here too,.no steps were taken to effect a separation, so long as there appeared to be no necessity to do so in view of the community of language and lav/ which has until now prevailed, as well as on the practical ground that the Danzig unions were too small to allow of the establishment of separate relief systems or the inauguration of separate relations to the international trade union organisations. In Danzig itself none but the
Danzig unions ever came before the public, however close their financial connection with the German unions. The purpose of the Danzig unions was altogether separate and independent, and it was for this reason that they established a separate coverin? organisation of their own in the shape of the General Association of Trade Unions of the Free City of Danzig |or the protection of their combined interests, since they were no longer able to entrust the representation of those interests to a German organisation ; and for the same reason they provided this newly - 16 -
founded Association immediately after the detachment of Danzig
from the r-oich, with a body of Statutes in which there is no
trace of any connection with the General German Association.
Incidentally it may be pointed out that the Land- g e r ic h t has no sort of right to go outside the indications of the Statutes and to attach weight to extraneous considerations of fact in its judgment of the questions at issue. The
Statutes alone determine the rights of the members of an association. What may have survived in the nature of de facto connections is - for what it is worth - of historical interest only : in many cases it was probably no mox e than the natural consequence of personal relations between individual officials in Danzig and in Germany. On the really decisive point, name ly the question of the responsibility for the settlement of labour conditions, there is no trace in any of the Statutes of any one of the unions of there ever having been any dependence of the Dan;ig unions on the German unions.
V .
It has already been pointed out that, in its examination of the relation of the Danzig unions to the German unions, the Landgericht has treated the organisatory connection as decisive, ignoring the fact that the real function of the
Danzig unions, in the performance of which they were entirely independent, was the settlement of labour conditions and the representation of the interests of their members.
What has happened in Germany and, by the aid of the
Provisional Order, is now to be extended to Danzig, is a radical change in the nature of the "free" trade unions and in the purpose of the workers’ combination for the protection of - 17 -
their interests. The Landgericht's failure to appreciate the nature of the "free” trade union combinations is sufficiently apparent from the fact that it allows a third party, who is
not even a member of a union, sweeping rights to remove the
former officials, and hands over to him in addition all the papers and all the property.
The former managing officials were all elected by
the Danzig members. They d erivE their powers therefore from
the Danzig members even in those special cases where they
have nominally been appointed by the German central offices
for reasons connected with the legal aspect of the financial connection. The majority of them were paid cut of funds collected in Danzig, They held their positions only for so long, and in so far, as they possessed the confidence of the workers belonging to the Danzig unions. Their powers therefore were the fruit of a relationship by which they were bound in loyalty to the Danzig workers, a relationship with which the circumstance of the German unions having certain powers of control has nothing to do. The Statutes of the
German unions deal with this very point vf the influence which the central associations should have on the attitude and business management of the local groups : they deal with it, for reasons connected with past history, very
thoroughly : and they lay down that the central associations may send auditors and supervisors to the local groups, and that they may dissolve local groups which are recalcitrant.
But r.o Statutes know anything of the possioility of the central associations themselves taking over the conduct of
the local groups’ business. - 18 -
VI.
The effect of this provisional Order has been to
hand over the entire assets .f the trade unions to Herr Kendzia,
and to deprive the former heads of the unions of any present possibility of engaging in trade union work. This state of
things is due primarily to the action of the Amtsgericht in ordering a surrender of the assets to the Applicant hinself and not, as the law prescribes in the case of Provisional Orders
(in s11 but a very few special cases), to a Sequestrator. The
Amtsgericht considers that its injunction to the Applicant to
refrain from any disposal of the property constitutes a
sufficient safeguard for the Opponents of the Application. The
Landgericht adopts this view without any regard to the fact that the injunction, being without sanctions for its enforce ment , is without practical significance. The consequence is
that Herr l.endzia has now the disposal of the entire assets of the trade unions. He, and he alone, Is in a position to pay out relief, and to meet the other obligations of the unions to their members.
A further consequence is that all those workers who are at present dependent on the receipt of relief, or are apprehensive of finding themselves in thet position in the near- future , are compelled to remain members of the organisation which Herr Lendzia now dominates. So long as the property of the unions remains in his hands, those workers who for economic reasons cannot afford to stand aside until the position is finally cleared up, will continue to be powerless to do anything to prevent the leadership of the union ^remaining in' Herr lendzia’s hands without any possibility of control by the members.
Thsy can only look on while their property, accumulated out of their contributions for years past, is handed over en bloc to - 19 -
the dictatorial disposal of a single individual, whereas up till now they had the assurance that the money was being administered subject to careful and continuous control by the members themselves, and that the officials charged with the administra tion of it had only reached their positions after years of test and trial. The withdrawal of administrative powers from these officials is accordingly an act of interference, not merely with the service contracts of the Opponents of the Application themselves (as the Landgericht’s Judgment represents it), but a direct interference with the rightsof control, and so with the rights of ownership, of the members of the Unions. In this respect at least therefore t e Judgment violates the proprietary rights of the trade union members, which the Constitution protects, or at any rate exposes them to conditions of continuous jeopardy.
VII.
iîore th>.n this, it is already certain that the trade union movement will feel the ill effects of the provisional
Order to m even more serious, and (it is to be feared) a lasting degree. The former leaders of the unions have, it is true, endeavoured to create a new organisation for the period of uncertainty, which will at any rate provide that section of the workers which has the intention and the means of adhering to the "free” trade union idea withan instrument for the economic struggle. But eve- this section of the workers is already melting away, and must continue to do so in proportion as the period of uncertainty is prolonged. The position of the unions which have been 'brought into line;> gains ground in comparison with the new association of the workers, partly because of the pressure exerted by National Socialist employers - 20 -
in their works, and the direct interest of those workers who are in danger for political reasons of losing their positions and becoming dependent on the union relief, partly because of the systematically stimulated atmosphere of terrorism. Herr
Kendzie himself and the Danzig headquarters'.of the National
S o c ia list Party in Danzig are at pains to disseminate rumours, and even to put notices in the public Press, to the effect that only those trade unions which have been ”brought into line” have the right to take part in wage agr-.ement negotiations, and that no one who is not a member of such a anion has a right to unemployment relief, that no one else has a chance of finding vTork, and in a word that Kerr Kendziars organisation alone now counts in Danzig.
These rumours may all be false ; but they assume a very definite importance when it is found that in innumerable cases minor organs of the public services in sympathy with
National Socialism reply to applications or complaints which are addressed to them in a manner which entirely confirms the rumours, and that a number of employers - and not only those
-ho are in sympathy with the National Socialist Party - are driven by threats of the withholding of Government contracts
01 orders from Germany, and (it may be) also by political or personal influence, to put pressure on the workers employed by them to join the N.S.B.O., and to have nothing to do with the new workers ' association.
Most of these developments followed immediately on
“he issue of the Provisional Order. Since then, with the
Constitution of the National Socialist Government in Danzig, v-'e Process of discrediting the former trade union leaders, and heading systematic panic amongst the workers, nas gone on - 21 -
unchecked. No employer ventures any longer to resist the pressure exercised. The workers, under the impression of what has happened in Germany, do not believe that anyone will or can protect them from the resultant prejudice. In a number of cases already, officials of the new association have been taken into custody by the police with the avowed purpose of a settling of accounts with Herr Kendzia. In two cases the police have stopped meetings of the association by intimations to the owners of the restaurants in which the meetings were to take place that they would lose their licences if they allowed their premises to be used for the purpose. In one of these cases it was the Tobacco Workers who were to hold the meeting; and it will be remembered that the Provisional Order was disallowed by the Cpurt in the case of the President of the Tobacco Workers Association,
RompzaI A report on this incident published by the "Danziger
Vorposten" - and not contradicted by the Police - allows it to be understood that the prohibition of this meeting and the arrest of hompza were due to the instigation of the
N.S.B.O., to enable the latter to hold a meeting of their own at the same hour in the Tobacco Monopoly building!
The above considerations show that the Judgment of the Landgericht, whether legally tenable or not, has created a situation frankly inconsistent with the spirit of the Danzig Constitution, which was designed to be a demo cratic Constitution and as such received the guarantee of the League of Nations.
Danzig, July 22nd, 1933.