POLES ATTACK GERMANS.

Manawatu Times, Volume XLII, Issue 1808, 5 May 1921, Page 5

POLES ATTACK GERMANS.

FIGHTING IN SILESIA,

VERY HEAVY CASUALTIES

MURDER, PILLAGE AND

VIOLENCE

[By Electric Cablet— Copyright.] [Aust. and N.Z. Cable Association]

(Received Wednesday, 8 p.m.)

LONDON, May 4

Berlin telegrams report heavy fighting over a wide- area in Upper Silesia between the Poles and Germans. Twcntv thousand Poles hav o occupied Kattowitz and Beuthen, and complete chaos reigns in South and SouthEastern Silesia. Railway bridges have been blown up and the lines dynamited. The casualties on both sides have been heavy. The inter-Allied troops are powerless. The "Daily Express"' Berlin correspondent states that 20.000 Polish insurgents, irregulars and armed civilians crossed the border during the night and occupied towns in the districts of Kattowitz and Beuthen. Murder, pillage and violence have occurred throughout the countryside. The town of Beuthen was the scene of the bitterest fighting, the streets echoing the sounds of machine) gun and rifle fire and the bursting of shells. The public buildings were closed and the overhead tram wires torn down. ' ; ~, „ French reinforcements entered tne town, but had no part in the righting. At Gleiwitz, a town with important iron and glass works, the Poles entrenched themselves at the artillery barracks, which a powerful force of German plebiscite police vainly endeavoured to, storm. .' The inter-Allied troops left the town to the mercy of the combatants. The inter-Allied Commission proclaimed a state of siege in Kattowitz, but this produced little effect. Railway bridges were blown up and Socialist newspaper premises wrecked with dynamite. There was heavy fighting in Hindenburg, where' the Germans expelled the Poles, who re-stormed the town. Railway communications between Berlin and Oppeln, which is the headquarters of the inter-Allied Mission, is cut off and telephone and telegraphic communication with most of the districts is impossible.

ALLIES WILL ACT.

(Received Wednesday, 9 p.m.) LONDON, May 4

The " Express' " Berlin correspondent adds that according: to later reports the inter-Allied Commission is concentrating large forces of tanks in the disaffected areas, ready for swift raids against the combatants. The Mission has proclaimed martial law throughout Upper Silesia. French troops at Kattowitz surrounded three hundred armed Pollsii civilians, and captured their weapons.