EUROPE AND HITLER.

Press, Volume LXIX, Issue 20806, 16 March 1933, Page 12

EUROPE AND HITLER.

TO mK EDITOR OK TH» !?*IS3B. Stir.— (n your valuable article of this wiorning on the above topic there is a statement, that can scarcely be correct, find which in part vitiates your argument., and should perhaps bo corrected: "Actually," you say, "the population of the corridor is now 88 per cent. Polish." It is quite true that in recent years owing to the flight or expulsion of more than 130,000 Germans fiwrn tfto corridor,, the region has become increasingly Polish, but your figures must still be incorroct. Unfortunately there- has been no plebiscite in. the corridor itself; but wherever in the neighbourhod such a plebiscite has been taken there has been an overwhelming majority for the Germans. German figures for the corridor may sometimes be inaccurate, but Polish figure* are usually quite false. In what follows I have therefore gone t.> * French source for my statements. A student, M. Mattel, has completed a careful, and obviously fair survey of the problem. Certainly one would not dtpeet him to be biased in favour of tfce Germans. Now, the figures proMmted by the Poles are obtained by counting the Eastern Pomeranians (Hashishes) as Poles. These are neither Polish nor German, and speak a language of their own, which is not a Polish dialect. The Poles further 'claim that since 1870 the Kashubes live continually elected Polish deputies to the Keichstag. This statement ft incorrect.' Only three out of the 13 Constituencies of West Prussia have always elected Polish deputies, and these not for separatist, but for relif'lous reasons. Tho Kashubeß, like the ,<?lea, are ardent Catholics. At present tho corridor returns to the Polish JJHet five dissentient German deputies, •nd in the Polish Sejm there are, 2-i 4«««»an deputies. In 1910, before there was any question of separation, if we include Danzig, which is 07 per cent. German, there were in the district roughly 900,000 Germans, loss than 400.000 Poles, more than 100,000 Kashubes, and some 20,000 bilinguals >f doubtful ethnic origin. If we, exclude Oanaig, we still And the Germans in

a majority over any other race, though not in an absolute majority. Now, *rcn allowing for the flight of moro than 150,000 Germans from the area, and their replacement by Poles, we cannot arrive at anything like an estimate of a population 88 per cent. Polish.— Yours, HOBT. M. LAING. March 14, 1933. - [We agree with Mr LaiDg that acc.irate statistics of the population of the Ppli»h Corridor, by nationalities, are at ggesent' difficult to obtain. Our own figure was based on the Polish official census of 1931. There are obvious reaaonn for doubting the impartiality of this Census; but it is significant that in general and municipal elections during the last ten yearn the German lists were •Hpported by only between 12 and 15 per cent, of the total votes east. Tlie If 10 figures quoted by Mr Laing are of dfiubtfol value, since the birth-rate ot the non-German population is much higher than the birth-rate of the Gorman population. —Ed. "The Press."]