Galerie

 

The Polish mail boxes were of the usual Polish Syrena type: red with a white Polish eagle and a Polish inscription: Skrzynka Pocztowa. Listy wyjmuje sie o godzinie. “Mail box. Letters are taken out at...” (Illustration 5)


The mail boxes in Danzig had a special inscription in the Polish and German Languages: Nur für Briefe nach Polen and Tylko dia listo’w do Polski. “Only for letters to Poland. (Illustration 6)


The President of the Freie Stadt Danzig, Heinrich Sahm, returned in the afternoon of 5 January from a hunt near Steegen. He encountered the Commission for Foreign Affairs of the Senate in a heated condition. The members of the Commission wanted to order the Schutzpolizeito remove the mail boxes. Sahm thought that this would cause diplomatic problems with Poland and proposed to ask the High Commissioner of the League of Nations, General Haking, for his decision. The High Comm issioner had been appointed by the League to decide in problems that could arise on the agreements that had been made between Poland and the Freie Stadt. Unfortunately, the High Commissioner was on a holiday in England and they had to wait for his return to Danzig.

In the night of 5th to 6th of January, some of the mail boxes were damaged. On some of them the inscription explaining the use of the boxes was painted over with paint and tar. (Illustration 7)


The mail box at the building of the Komisarz Generalny at the Neugarten was painted black’ white/red, the colors of the German Empire. (Illustration 8). The damaged boxes were removed immediately to be used as evidence and replaced by new ones.

The Polish representative protested against this violation of the Polish national symbol, the white eagle, and the violation of Polish property. He wanted the senate to order the Danzig police to protect the mail boxes and to investigate the offenders. The senate answered that the damaging of the mail boxes was no violation of Polish state property, because the Polish post in Danzig was only an econ omic institution with no sovereign rights. They promised to search for the offenders and to try to prevent further damage to the mail boxes.

After a meeting with the High Commissioner of the League of Nations in Danzig, who told that the damage to the mail boxes was regarded by the Pqlish representative as an insult to the Polish State and to the Polish people, the senate officially declared that they regretted the damage on the boxes. In the city, posters were hung telling the people of Danzig to stop acting rashly; the senate was already

 

Danzig Report Vol. 1 - Nr. 83 - April - May - June - 1994, Page 5.