Editing Polish Corridor (section)

==== Economic reasons ====

The Poles held the view that without direct access to the [[Baltic Sea]], Poland's economic independence would be illusory.<ref name="thorburn54">''Out of the Ashes'' James Thorburn Muirhead 1941, page 54</ref> Around 60.5% of Polish import trade and 55.1% of exports went through the area.<ref>The Crises of France's East Central European Diplomacy, 1933–1938 – p.&nbsp;40. Anthony Tihamer Komjathy – 1976</ref> The report of the Polish Commission presented to the [[Allied Supreme Council]] said: 
<blockquote>1,600,000 Germans in [[East Prussia]] can be adequately protected by securing for them freedom of trade across the corridor, whereas it would be impossible to give an adequate outlet to the inhabitants of the new Polish state (numbering 25,000,000) if this outlet had to be guaranteed across the territory of an alien and probably hostile Power.<ref>''The Danzig dilemma: a study in peacemaking by compromise'' by John Brown Mason, Stanford University Press, 1946, page 49</ref></blockquote>

The [[United Kingdom]] eventually accepted this argument.<ref name="thorburn54" /> The suppression of the Polish Corridor would have abolished the economic ability of Poland to resist dependence on Germany.<ref>Review of Reviews page 67. Albert Shaw, 1931</ref> As [[Lewis Bernstein Namier]], Professor of Modern History at the [[University of Manchester]] and known for both his "legendary hatred of Germany"<ref name="taylor" /> and [[Anti-German sentiment|Germanophobia]]<ref name="crozier" /> as well as his anti-Polish attitude<ref name="Niepodległość page 58"/> directed against what he defined as the "aggressive, antisemitic and warmongerily imperialist" part of Poland,<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Aabj_oBCsrMC&q=namier+polish&pg=PA206|title=Citizens of Empire: Jews in the Service of the British Empire (1906–1949)|first1=Stephanie|last1=Chasin|publisher=[[University of California]]|year=2008|isbn=9781109022278|page=206}}{{Dead link|date=February 2023 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref> wrote in a newspaper article in 1933:
<blockquote>The whole of Poland's transport system ran towards the mouth of the Vistula.&nbsp;... 90% of Polish exports came from her western provinces.<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=gTA34DxHx4AC&q=Bernard+Newman+the+new+europe The New Europe, page 91] - by [[Bernard Newman (author)|Bernard Newman]], 1942</ref>&nbsp;... Cutting through of the Corridor has meant a minor amputation for Germany; its closing up would mean strangulation for Poland."<ref>{{Cite book |last=Namier |first=Lewis Bernstein |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Y702017As5MC&q=Lewis+Bernstein+Namier+In+the+Margin+of+History%E2%80%8E |title=In the Margin of History |date=1969 |publisher=Books for Libraries Press |isbn=978-0-8369-0050-7 |page=44 |language=en}}</ref></blockquote>

By 1938, 77.7% of Polish exports left either through Gdańsk (31.6%) or the newly built port of [[Gdynia]] (46.1%)<ref>Przegląd zachodni: Volume 60, Issues 3–4 Instytut Zachodni - 2004, page 42</ref>