GOODWILL IN SILESIA.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LIX, Issue 18204, 25 September 1922, Page 9

GOODWILL IN SILESIA.

EFFECT OF NEW FRONTIERS. > PEACEFUL ADJUSTMENT. PROBLEM OF THE CUSTOMS. Upper Silesia is gradually beginning to recovei from the shock of being cut in ' two, a special correspondent wrote to the London Times recently. The burst of acute consciousness, which set the Germans driving the Poles out of the German half, and the Poles driving the Germans out of the Polish half, immediately after' the Allied troops withdrew, has now more or less subsided. Genuine efforts are being rnade on both sides to induce the expelled ones to return, for they include a very large number of skilled German workmen on the one side, and Polish farm labourers on the other, who are badly wanted for their particular jobs. The frontier at present provides plenty of absurdities. There are" cases of letters from one Polish commune to/ another which have to cross the frontier into Germany, and come back again, or of telephone calls between two -German subscribers having to go through a Polish exchange. These are matters for organisation and adjustment. Only time and goodwill are required; and the goodwill is there. There is not the slightest doubt that both the German and Polish authorities are doing their level best to make the new conditions work. Their own interests lie so much in one another's hands that they cannot afford to be anything else than accommodating.' To take one example only. Beuthon (a German town) has its water supply in Poland. Konigsh.utte, which is now in Poland, and is called Krolewska Huta, has its water supply in Germany. Each can starve the other if wants to ; but it does not pay. Frontier Harked by Sticks. Considering what a lot of fuss has been made over it, the new frontier is not a very formidable obstacle to meet. I strolled out of Beuthen—now the last town in Germany—to see what it looked like. A few hundred yards out'on tho Konigshutte Road I found d little wooden hut, like the average pavilion .on a village cricket ground. On a bench in front- otit sat two German Customs officials kicking their heels and discussing whose turn it was to fetch the beer. Alittle way from the road what appeared to be a broomstick with a wisp of hay wrapped round it stood in the middle of a cornfield ; farther in the distance appeared another. This was the frontier. A quarter of a mile away rose the build-. ings and revolving 'xvheels of a colliery sha't. That was Po'and. The colliewj from that mine all live in Beuthen, and cross the frontier every day to go to from their work. It does not worry them much. For the present the identification cards issued by the Inter-Allied Commission serve as passports, and in time every native of the district will be given a card entitling him to .cross the frontier at any point. / _ As it is, the examination at, the "barrier is purely perfunctory. While I was waiting there three trams came by. They were all full of people, for the tramway system touches practically every village in the industrial area. One passport was ex amined in each tram, and the time wasted was about 2£min. •. Mutual Interdependence. It is impossible that it should be otherwise. To take Beuthen alone, one of the industrial five towns of Upper Silesia, seven main roads run out of it, and six of tfiese cross the frontier. Every one of them carries a tramway besides its carriage traffic and "foot passengers, and there are people goinjr to and fro all day and night. If the frontier meant a wait tof more than a few minutes for anyone work simply could not go on / As.it is, the effect of the frontier on the railway traffic almost produced this result during the first weeks after the evacuation. The frontier cuts at least seven important railway lines "which serve the coalfield. Hundreds of trains'* day have to be held up, their engines have to be - changed, and their trucks shunted and their content*, checked, by German and Polish customs officials. The Pplisb cus..toms staff was new to the job; delays increased i trains accumulated in the stations and on the lines for 10, 12, even 16 hours, until thingij grew impossible. At last the Poles introduced a regulation that a train's papers must be cleared within an hour, regardless of whether its contents had been inspected, and this desperate remedy has eased the traffic considerably. Heoccupation by Poles. The most interesting place in Upper Silesia now is Kattowice. Three I years ago it was a German town. Not a woTd of Polish was to be heard in the streets. For a man to put up a sign in Polish outside his shop was as much as his business Was worth. A good deal of the Prussian dye wore off during the plebiscite period Now all of a stroke it.Js/PoUaji. The German is gone or is going. e , The bystreets are blocked with his furniture vans. The officials went with the German flag'; the German tradesmen,, after studying the Polish customs tariff, have decided that tho character of their businesses will have to change, and the more conservative 0! them are looking out for some one to buy their shops and goodwill. Of course, it is far too early to paBS judgment on the state of affairs which the new frontier has created. The Geneva Convention has done its best to leave conditions for the industrial enterprises on the Polish side of the frontier the Bame as they were before. Nevertheless, things will bo very much changed, and they will have to adapt themselves to the new conditions as best they can. Beyond quesr tion they will have heavy losses; but Poland has no interest in letting them decline, and it is reasonable to suppose that the Polish Government will do everything it can to adapt the customs tariff to their needs. On the.other hand, they will have a new market in Poland which is capable of great development. In five years we shall have an inkling of what the result will be. ' ;