ABSTRACT
Figure 16.1 Disarmament conferences in the interwar period 209 Figure 16.2 Coudenhove-Kalergi’s Pan-European Union (1926) and Briand’s proposal
for a European Federal Union (1929) 211
The High Commissioner for Danzig
During the Versailles Conference of 1919, separate measures were taken for different territories, including Danzig, Vilnius, Memel and the Saar Basin. The League of Nations initially played a successful role in tackling the problems relating to these territories. In 1919 the port of Danzig and the area around it, which was part of Prussia, was declared a free city under the supervision of the League of Nations. The League appointed a High Commissioner, who was paid jointly by the city and by Poland. Danzig was also to remain dependent on Poland for its foreign policy. This arrangement produced a difficult relationship with Poland, which the city was reluctant to accept. It meant that Poland lost an important port (the reason why it built a new one in Gdynia) and it continued to consider Danzig as Polish territory. The High Commissioner, a position filled at various times by Britons, Italians, a Dutchman and a Dane, had the task of drafting a constitution for the city and mediating between it and Poland. In the 1920s, despite tensions, the High Commissioner succeeded in both these objectives. In the 1930s the situation became more complex because of Germany’s ambitions to reclaim the city as part of its territory.
