Incident

King Alexander of Yugoslavia and French Foreign Minister Louis Barthou were murdered at Marseille in 1934 by a professional assassin whose Italian connections were carefully hushed. Two years ago British Ambassador to China Sir Hughe M. Knatchbull-Hugessen was machine-gunned and dangerously wounded by a Japanese plane. During the Spanish Civil War "pirate" submarines torpedoed British and French merchantmen. If an incident were needed to start a war, the world has recently had plenty of them.

Early this week there was another, this one at Kaltof in highly inflammable Danzig. Involved was no highly placed ruler or diplomat, but a German butcher named Gustav Gruebner, who was killed by a shot fired from an official Polish automobile. Since incidents amount to what nations want to make them, Fuehrer Adolf Hitler could give Butcher Gruebner a sure niche in history by deciding that this was ' just the right kind of provocation he needed to march into Danzig.

There are always two versions to diplomatic incidents, and I'affaire Gruebner was no exception. The Polish account: the Polish Vice-Commissioner to Danzig went to Kaltof to investigate the sacking of a Polish customs house by a German mob; his party was attacked, compelling his chauffeur to fire in self-defense. To this the German version bears little resemblance: there was merely an orderly demonstration against "molestations" of German girls by Polish officials, and Gustav Gruebner was plugged for no reason at all. The Nazi-controlled Danzig Government through the Senate President promptly demanded compensation for Butcher Gustav's bereaved relatives, apologies, and the surrender of the "murderer." The Poles made counter-demands: punishment of those guilty of the attack on the customs house, compensation for damages and assurances for the protection of Polish interests.

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Contribution to the Danzig "debate" last week by Propaganda Minister Dr. Joseph Paul Goebbels: "It is strange logic for the Poles to claim Danzig because it lies at the mouth of the Vistula--we are not claiming Rotterdam because it lies at the mouth of the Rhine."

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