The League and Silesia.

Evening Star, Issue 17792, 14 October 1921, Page 4

The League and Silesia.

Tire. Council o£ the League of Nations has I agreed upon its proposal of a lino to divide Upper Silesia between Poland and Germany. No lino that is drawn can give more than rough effect to the voting of different communes in the plebiscite that was taken in March last, because that lino showed the races In the district to bo mixed up hopelessly, Poles, anxious to be their own masters, predominating hero, and Germans, with the same ambition, a few miles away. The difficulty since March has been not 'to devise a line that might be defended on some grounds under the Treaty. The map of Upper Silesia has been criss-crossed and zig-zagged with half a dozen lines that have been proposed. The difficulty has been to map out a boundary that would

be accepted first by Great Britain and France, who have viewed' the Silesian problem from quite different aspects, and then by the recent enemies, still hostile to each other, whoso nationality will be decided by it. The Treaty lays down that in the Using of tho boundary regard shall be paid to geographical and economic conditions, as well ns to tho desire of the inhabitants, which, as we have said, would bo a hopeless basis for determination in itself, unkss the whole' district should bo handocPover to Germany in accordance with the general verdict of the plebiscite. That solution would be an impossible one for France to accept, if Great Britain had been willing to agree to it. Tho aim of Franco in applying the Treaty has been to give tho benefit of every doubt to Boland, with tho object of making Poland a groat buffer State and of weakening Germany just as much as possible. Tho British view was that what is known as the industrial triangle should not be divided, because to divide it would bo to, run the risk of destroying its industries at, a time when every ounce of production which Germany can put forth,is needed to assist the recovery of Europe as a whole, as well as for the, payment of German indemnities. ‘'The problem was referred to the Le.'vguo of Nations because the Supreme Council could not agree on it. It lias to bo seen now what impression will bo made by the League’s decision.

It is not certain that the Powers represented iu tlie Supreme Council are bound to accent the recommendation which is now made by the League. Mr Lloyd George bud no doubt that they should pledge themselves beforehand to accent it. M. Briand seems to have left himself a loophole. But the French Government will have less temptation to find fault with the proposal that is now made, since, if the terms of it are correctly reported, it goes further with the French than with the British view. It provides for the industrial triangle being divided, at whatever risk that raw materials will cut off from great factories and iron from tho coal require*! to smelt it. It is the Geiman Government which is shrieking against this solution. lor M. Briand to have agreed last August to the Britndi view, supported as it was by Italy, would probnblv have meant tho end of the French Govern merit. It might have meant the end of the Entente. To avoid those lisku tho question was .referred to the League’s Council. Tho Council of the League includes eight nations, and its findings arc required to bo unanimous. If the League's report had been unfavorable to France the decision of a body with its wider membership and its ability to be impartial probably would have been accepted much more easily than any decision of the Supremo Conspik in which two Premiers voting against tho third would make a majority. The difference is the measure of the League's strength and of the unique qualifications which it possesses for deciding international differences. If its power is increased by tho latest appeal to it, wo may hear less of tho Supreme Council in future; and there is no doubt that in tho last two years that body has controlled too many functions. It is not enough, however, that the League's decision should bo accepted by tho Allied Powers. For tho best aid to bo given to its authority tho decision must work well in practice, and it is too roon for anyone to say yol how its plan for Silesia will work out.