POLE AND GERMAN

Evening Post, Volume CXXV, Issue 151, 29 June 1938, Page 23

POLE AND GERMAN

ISSUES IN SILESIA TREATMENT OF MINORITY International control of all kinds has come in for so much criticism by the Germans that it is agreeably surprising to hear of them here declare that things were much better under the League of Nations' administration of Upper Silesia than at the present time, wrote an Upper Silcsiun correspondent of the "Christian Science Monitor" recently. The reasons for this are understand-' able. The Germans throughout this region today form a minority in the Polish State, against the cultural and economic policy of which there is now no international appeal. Since, nowadays, the policy of the Third Reich is above all friendship with Poland for reasons of "Rcalpolitik," the complaints of their "brothers" over the border, despite all the emphasis upon the greater German racial unity, get little more consideration from National Socialism than do those of the Germans of South Tyrol. Superficial observers might point to the German-Polish Minority Agreement of November 5, 1937, intended to regulate this problem on the most equitable basis, but the Germans here complain that this agreement is ignored in Upper Silesia. In addition, it might be pointed out that if it were observed, such an agreement falls far short of the terms of the international agreements made after 1919, in the "dictated peace treaties" or under the League of Nations. The great concern of every minority is to protect-its cultural heritage and its economic position. Both of these have continued to be seriously affected since July 15, 1937, when the Geneva Convention lapsed.

GERMAN WORKERS DISMISSED. Upper Silesia is mainly industrial, and the most serious undermining of the German minority has come from the replacement of Germans by Polish workers in heavy industry. In 1922, 60 per cent, of all the workers and about 90 per cent, of the officials totalling 1400 were German. In July, 1937, there were about 2000 organised Geiman workers and 300 German officials. During the past nine months 2500 new Polish workers have been taken on and German workers of long stand- I ing dismissed. The works' manage- |

ment, it is alleged here, pay little heed to protests; Warsaw is not interested, and all the German can do is to seek work in German Upper Silesia. "Reorganisation" is the official Polish explanation of such developments. . The same "de-Germanising" proceeding in industry is also alleged in trade and handicraft, particularly through such appeals to racial sentiments, as "Buy only from Poles." The extension of the Land Reform Act to West Poland, including Upper Silesia, has also been severely criticised on the grounds that the German R landowners have had to surrendei j much more property to the State than H have the Polish, and particularly that I in the apportionment of the new settle- R ment land, Poles alone have benefited. H

Since 1926, 66 per cent, of the land of German landowners in West Poland, embracing 110,000 hectares (about 27 000 acres), have been taken for compulsory panellation and only 55,000, or 34 per cent, from Poles. GERMANS EXCLUDED. This, Senator Hasbach, speaker for the German minority in the Polish Senate, recently criticised as unjust, since Polish land owners had mbre than 14 times what the Germans had. To the Polish criticism that only 10 per cent, of the total population of West Poland was German, Senator Hasbach replied that the reason was clear. In that area there was not a single German railway worker, post, local, or municipal official and not one German official or employee in works in which the State is interested; and although so much land had been taken' from the- German minority, not a single German has been placed in the new land settlements established from the land parcellation schemes he mentioned. Germans, he concluded, naturally suffer more from this "land-hunger" since it is only with the greatest difficulty that any of them can enter State services. In Upper Silesia, as elsewhere, lands of Germans have been ''confiscated" for tax payments, the outstanding example being the estates of the Pless family, fosmerly, through its industrial concerns, the economic stronghold of the Germans of Upper Silesia. . , But not only has the economic basis of their existence been taken from many Germans here; their cultural , freedom as a minority group has also , been much curtailed. They have the ; right to use their own language m the , ' Law Courts, as have the Germans in the border provinces of Posen and . Pomorze, it is true, but the special rights for minority schools are now seriously limited.

CLOSING OF SCHOOLS. As in other parts of West Poland the Germans here have been much concerned about the effect of the September, 1937, law regarding private schools, which is interpreted as yet ot+orwnt tr> "Polonise" their

another attempt 10 children, especially as German private schools are being continuously closed on one pretext or another. This means that, despite protests to the Ministry of Education, most of the German children will no longer be taught in their mother tongue. The Evangelical Church in Upper Silesia as throughout West Poland is an important bulwark of German culture, and as such has suffered. Divergence of opinion exists between the Poles and the Germans as to the numbers of the latter who are Evangelical Protestants. . Of a total of 30,000 18,000 are Poles and only 12,000 Germans, say the Polish authorities, whereas the Germans maintain that the Poles number only 5160. This question is not merely academic, since on the Polish basis only one German pastor was elected to the preliminary Church Council ot

the United Evangelical Church. I [This pastor, also, it should be noted, refused to sign the general protest against the new Church laws and his action is approved by Dr. Michael. Grzysinsld, the Polish voiwode (governor) of Upper Silesia.] . The appointment of M. Grzysinslu to an honorary doctorate of the Cracow Mining Academy for furthering Polish national aims in Upper Silesia was not welcomed by the Germans who saw m this selection the continuation of the economic and cultural struggle against themselves. ____________