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Hitler Reveals plans for the Free City of Danzig :

As long as Hitler had other fish to fry, it appeared that Germany's relations with Poland were not bad. Here the Polish Foreign Minister, Colonel Beck (far left) poses with Hitler, Reich Foreign Minister Neurath, and Goering during a Polish goodwil visit to Germany in 1935.

In Beck's opinion, the 1934 agreement between Germany and Poland had shown its value during the recent crisis in Europe. Warsaw thought that it wasn't "a tactical and provisional expedient" but an expression of the definite wish of the two nations to remedy a situation wich, after centuries of mutual hostility, could profit neither side. Thus it was intended to consolidate the friendly relations which the two former enemies had established.

Beck was certaninly not prepared to sacrifice the rights in Danzig given to Poland by the Versailles Treaty for the sake of German-Polish concord. The importance of Danzig's maritime trade, the expansion of its merchant fleet, and its industrial production made concession of this nature unacceptable to Poland. In any case the administration of the Free City, instituted in 1919, in no way affected the rights of the German population. Nevertheless, not wishing to appear intransigent, Beck told Lipski to suggest another solution to Ribbentrop.

This would "substitude a bilateral agreement for the pact of 1934. The new agreement would garantee the continued existence of the Free City of Danzig in such a way that the national and cultural way of life of the German majority would be unimpaired, and thar all existing Polish rights would be guaranteed. Despite the complications," Beck cocluded in his instructions to Lipski, "The Polish Government is obliged to state that any other solution, and any one that in particular proposed to rejoin the Free City into the Reich, would be disastrous to any further negociations and would lead directly to war.

All this was logical. But as far as Hitler and Ribbentrop were concerned, the 1934 agreement was exactly what Beck had said it was not : "a tactical and provisional expedienjt". The future of German-Polish relations mattered far less to them than the gaining of Danzig. However, Lipski took his time in passing Beck's instructions.  . . .
 

Danzig Study Group U.S.A.
Danzig Report Nr. 156 - April - May - June - 2012, Page 3.