DENMARK AND SCHLESWIG

Evening Post, Volume XCVII, Issue 103, 3 May 1919, Page 14

DENMARK AND SCHLESWIG

ATTITUDE OF GOVERNMENT.

It is ssmi-omcially announced that the standpoint of the Danish Government with regard to the decision of the frontier questions at the Peace Conference is as follows :—

For Denmark the question of North Schleswig is solely a national ono. Tho Danish nation hopes that all who speak the Danish language and feel themselves to be Danish will be united in the Kingdom of Denmark, but other than national interests do not affect this question, inasmuch as the strength of Denmark as a State w6uld not be increased by tho possession of a greater part of Schleswig than that in which the population really wishes to join Denmark. Our-task at the Peace Conference would therefore bo to carry through the claims of the Danish population of Schleswig, so that tho question may bo soiveel on national lines and on the basis of the right of peoples to self-determination, and that the referendum should take place in Schleswig in accordance with these principles. The. Government agrees with the Danes in Schleswig that a plebiseite i will form tho surest foundation for tho inviolability of reunion in the future.

The Government considers that the North Schleswig question should, in ac» cordance with the Aabenraa- resolution, be settled in this way: "That North Sehleswig be looked upon as a free State ( whose population may, by voting 'Aye' or 'No,' sfcato whether it desires to be reunited with Denmark or not." That part of Schleswig which is undoubtedly pro-Danish, and which is referred to in the Aabenraa resolution as North Schloswig, is in the resolution specified as follows: "North Schleswig is that part of the Duchy of Schleswig starting from a. line drawn from the most southern point of Als through Flensburg .Fiord/to Kobbermoelle Bay, from which it runs along the Krussau Valley, south of Froeslev, so that Padbbrg becomes the frontier sta^ tion, and from there follows the bound' ary between Slogs and Kaer Canton, Skelbaek, and finally Soenderaa and Vidaa to its turn northwards. From there the line runs directly to the North Sea, and further to the most northern point of the Island of Sild." In Central Schleswig, however, a just decision may only be obtained by a plebiscite taken in the districts. If, contrary to expectation, it should be shown that it is impossible to 'carry through the referendum, in Danish North Schles' wig (which the Government has no reason to presume), the ■ frontier mentioned in the Aabenraa resolution must be the basis for the decision of the question, In the Aabenraa resolution (paragraph 5) it is said that it is regarded as a matter of course "that adjacent districts in Central Schleswig which put forward the claim have the right by special voting to state whether they , wish to return to Denmark." If in these districts it should be impossible to obtain a plebiscite (winch the Government has no reason^ to presume), the Government is of opinion that separate parishes south 'of the border with an undoubted majority of Danish-speaking inhabitants might be taken over by the Danish. Government. It is different in the case of Fleusborg and its near surroundings. The reunion of these districts with Denmark could not be accepted without anexplicit manifestation in that respect by means of free ■voting, as they undoubtedly have a predominant German population. A petition from the town of Fleusborg has. been received, signed by 3401 men and women. The population of that age in Fleusborg must be regarded as numbering about 40,000 people.—Reuter.