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Danzig-Polish Post Office Dispute 1925

If Danzig’s contention was correct, the reply of the Polish Commissioner-General of January 20^th, 1923, would perhaps not have met the real point at issue. However this may be, the two postal administrations exchanged in the following months letters dealing with the legal basis of the negotiations to be carried on under Article 168 and the Senate of the Free City seems to have taken no steps before December 1924 in order to obtain a decision on the points raised in their letter of January 4^th, 1923, nor to have made a statement. to the effect that it considered these points as already settled by the letter of the High Commissioner.

For these reasons the Court reaches the conclusion that there is no decision of General Haking in force dealing either with the question whether the Polish postal service is restricted to operations which can he performed within its premises, or with the question whether its use is confined to Polish authorities and offices. It is therefore unnecessary for the Court to consider whether the existence of a final decision could, and if so, under what circumstances, leave room for reconsideration of these points by the High Commissioner or by the Council of the League of Nations.

III.

The Court, having arrived at the conclusion that the points at issue regarding the Polish postal service in the Port of Danzig have not been settled by any decision in force, has now to deal with the two questions formulated by the Council under Number 2 (a) and (b) of their Request.

In order to answer these questions, it is necessary to state briefly what is the nature and scope of the Polish postal service in the port of Danzig.

The Treaty of Versailles (Article 104) made provision for a Convention between the Free City of Danzig and Poland which, with a view to giving Poland free access to the sea, was designed to secure to that State, amongst other things, the control and administration of the postal, telegraph and telephone communication between Poland and the Port of  Danzig. These rights of Poland were defined by Chapter IV of the Paris Convention in four articles which run as follows:—

Article 29
“Poland shall have the right to establish in the port of Danzig a post, telegraph and telephone service com-

Danzig-Polish Post Office Dispute, Seite 28.