TESCHEN'S FUTURE.

Taranaki Daily News, 15 September 1919, Page 5

TESCHEN'S FUTURE.

A PLEBISCITE ORDERED. OVER ADMISSION OF GERMANS. By Teloirraph.—Press Assn.—Copyrlcht. Received Sept. 14, r>,s p.jn. Paris, Sept. 12. After months of contention between Czechoslovakia and Poland, the Supreme Council has decided that a plebiscite shall be taken in Teschen similar to that in Upper Silesia, in reference to the admission of Germans— Aus. X.Z. Cable Assoc.

Teschen, t e, district of which little was known before the war, assumed an international importance during the peace discussions. The principality of Teschen measured only 900 square-miles, and had a population of 437,000 in 191o! Of this number 125,000 are Czechs, 75,000 are Germans, 00,000 are people commonly known as Wasserpoles, or people of Polish stock swayed by German influence; and then there are 45,000 Gorals, Slav mountaineers in the southern part of the district, and finally about 100,000 Poles, mostly recent immigrants from Galicia, who came to work in the coal mines and iron mills of the district. For more than five centuries Teschen belonged to the Bohemian Crown, and up to about 40 years ago Czech language and Czech schools struggled against the attempts of the Austrian Government to make the land German.

An official statement issued recently in Washington said: "When the Peace Conference Commission visited the district in February, both the Germans and the so-called Wasserpoles and Gorals asked for union with the Czechoslovak Rcpublic; so did the Mayor of the city of Teschen. Only the Galician immigrants wanted Polish rule. The importance of thin small district for the Czecho-Slovnk Republic is two-fold. In tlio first place, the main railway connecting the Czech half of the republic with the Slovak half through the very centre of Teschen between Olerburg and the Pass of Jablunkov. To replace this railroad nvould be a very difficult undertaking by reason of the mountains separating Moravia from Slovakia. Of still greater importance are the coal mines located in the north-western and northern end of the district. These mines produce the only coal suitable for coking, without which the great Czeeho-Slovak steel industry cannot exist. In the past nearly all of the coal produced around Oderburg was passed in Czeeho-Slovak factories,, very little gbing into lands now Polish. Upsides, the Poles will receive even more important coal mines located in the Polish-speakinc; districts of Prussian Silesia, and they havp other coal areas in what used to he "Russian Poland. The feeling in Bohemia is absolutely unanimous ns to Teschen, and if Premier Kraniftr and Foreign Minister Bencs come home from Paris without Teschen, the Ministry is sure to fall."