THE SILESIAN REVOLT

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume LXXIV, Issue LXXIV, 27 August 1919, Page 5

THE SILESIAN REVOLT

CORRESPONDENT'S GRUESOME STORY.

GERMANS' SEVERE MEASURES CAUSE UPHEAVAL.

BY CABLE—PBESS ASSOCIATION-COPYEIGHT LONDON, Aug. 25. The Morning Post* cracow corre.spondent reports that several bands of insurgents are still , holding out in Upper fculesia. but wholesale executions, coupled with the use of artillery, have broKen the backbone of the revolt. Most of the insurgents preferred death to surrender. ihe Germans, thus foiled, arrested oid men. women and boys, collected them in droves and made them march for hours holding their hands above their heads. Batches i of prisoners were continually beaten with the butts of riiies, wire cabling, and belting. The floors of their cells were so covered with blood from prisoners' wounds that boots stuck while walking. A priest, after confessing a fifteen-year-old boy, was compelled to hold his hands while he was, shot. The Ger- ) mans found a peasant with a slight bul- f let wound in his arm, and regarded this as evidence that h e had been fighting. They tied a hand grenade to his throat and removed the pin. Numerous instances are found of barbarous cruelty, old men being beaten brutally, while others were tied to horses. The Germans shot 150 prisoners at Kottowitz. A favorite German plan was to string a victim up by the hands before execution. The Germans stood on the river bank pot-shooting the fleeing refugees while they-wwe e trading breast high. The refugees appealed for Allied assistance.

It is explained that the miner s struck because th e Germans made the conditions intolerable. A widow fell at the correspondent's knees and told how the Germans had shot her husband, despite the fact that he had crossed the frontier and was on Polish territory. Young men have pleaded to the Allies to give the Poles arms to defend themselves. The correspondent listened -to the, stories of a group of 400 refugees, mostly men. and there was hardly a dry eye amongst them. He is convinced that no assemblage of people could be stirred to such unrestrained emotion of they had not lived through a terrible ordeal. The correspondent's conclusions are that a state of siege was declared in Upper Silesia tovvards the Polish workers, with the object of inciting an outbreak, thus discrediting the Poles as a people and giving an excuse for further , repressive measures, and tempting Poland to undertake unauthorised intervention. He is also convinced that al]*. of the most influential Poles have either heen arrested or .forced to flee, in order to assist the German policy. The Allies failure to give immediate effect to the Treaty clause relating to Upper Silesia has helped the Germans' plans. Polish circles in London are of opinion that the Germans imprisoned or deported practically the wliole of the educated people in order tb rob the working classes of guidance and influence during the plebiscite, believing the latter could easily be persuaded toj vote as Germany dictated, but when I the workers remained loyal to Poland I the Germane dealt with them. Simi-! larly, many Poles who were unable to I flee hid in disused workings at thej mines, where they were fed by their j families until caught. The Daily Telegraph's Paris correspondent states that France fears the • Allied mission's moral influence will j prove insufficient, therefore the immediate occupation of Silesia by Allied troops must be expected. There has' been an unofficial but a clear German I invitation to the Allies to take this) course.

LONDON, Aug. 26. The Morning Post's- correspondent, urges that an enquiry be held similar to the Belgian one regarding German excesses. He is of opinion that until the mines are removed from German control the output will- be negligible. The workers will return immediately the Allies occupy Upper Silesia.