Mail-box Storm

Mailbox Storm

"The Storm in a Mail Box," which has for some time been agitating the Free Citiy of Danzig* (TIME, Jan. 19) and has had sundry repercussions in Poland and Germany, flared up anew.

The dispute was engendered by the Poles painting the post boxes in the red and white colors of the Polish Republic. The Germans, outraged, retaliated by repainting them in the black, white and red colors of Imperial Germany. The fiery ire of Poles and Germans was temporarily abated by the whole question's being submitted to Mervyn Sorley Macdonnell, resident High Commissioner of the League of Nations.

Last week, Mr. Macdonnell ruled that the Poles were not entitled to a separate mailbox service and therefore had no right to paint the Danzig mailboxes in the Polish colors.

Poles were furious. Appeal to the League of Nations at Geneva was lodged. The Polish Army Chiefs began to rattle their sabres. Polish business men said they would not participate in a forthcoming fair at Danzig.

*The Free City of Danzig, with its territory, forms a corridor between Germany and its province of East Prussia and thus allows the Poles an economic outlet to the Baltic Sea. To Germans, the status quo is intolerable; to Poles, it is indispensable; thus, the former, by insidious propaganda, seek to restore the status quo ante; while the latter, by the same methods, seek to improve the status quo in favor of Poland.