44l] THE PLEBISCITES IN THE PEACE TREATIES 143 



A constitution for the Free City of Danzig- is to be 

 drawn up by the duly appointed representatives of the Free 

 City in agreement with the High Commission to be ap- 

 pointed by the League of Nations. 



The Free City of Danzig is to be included in the Polish 

 Customs frontiers and Poland is to conduct the foreign 

 relations of the Free City. 



German nationality is lost ipso facto by the coming into 

 force of the Treaty. The inhabitants become nationals of 

 the Free City of Danzig. 



Aside from the plea that Danzig is a purely German city, 

 the following quotation gives the chief points of the German 

 protest against the cession : 



In accepting Point 13 of President Wilson's address of 

 January 8, 1918, Germany has agreed that the Polish State 

 to be erected " should be assured a free and secure access 

 to the sea." The German Government has done so in recog- 

 nition of the address which President Wilson delivered to 

 the Senate on January 22, 1917, when he said: 



So far as practicable, moreover, every great people now struggling 

 toward a full development of its resources and of its powers should 

 be assured a direct outlet to the great highways of the sea. Where 

 this cannot be done by the cession of territory, it can no doubt be 

 done by the neutralization of direct rights of way under the general 

 guarantee which will assure peace itself. With a right comity of 

 arrangement no nation need be shut away from free access to the 

 open paths of the world's commerce. 



Germany offered the following solution : 



In accordance with the above principles and in order to fulfill the 

 obligation accepted by the German government, viz., to give Poland 

 a free and secure access to the sea, the German Government is ready 

 to make the ports of Mcmel, Konigsberg, and Danzig free ports and 

 to grant in these ports far-reaching rights to Poland. 



The Allied reply grants that "the population of Danzig 

 is, and has for long been, predominantly German " and it 

 adds that "just for this reason, it is not proposed to incor- 

 porate it in Poland." But Danzig is to be ceded by Ger- 

 many for the good of Danzig it.sclf and for the bciK'fit of 

 Poland. 



