The Washington herald., 1921-09-11

supreme council of the allied nations and
having incidentally set Europe by the and
brought the Ango-Freneh entente the edge Of dis
solution il Is perhaps appropriate to look back upon
the facts in the case Unhappiy the whole question
has been bedeviled by the propaganda of many ma
tions while equally unfortunately, in the United
States the Polish side has been totally lost sight Of
Yet the truth Is that accepting the treaty of
Versailles as the law. the Polish claim is efutable.
so far Is the important industrial region is concerned
The chief reason that Polish rights being denied.
moreover. that Is for the profit of Great Britain
primarily and Of Italy incidentally to play the Ger
man game, that is to seek the economic reeonsruc-
ton Of Germany contribution to their pros
perity What the British undertaking TO do is to
block Poland ip the interests of their economic
prosperity. primarily. but Of German recovery.
secondary detail.
Going back to the treaty OF Versailles, this doc
pncnt provided in its FIRST draft that Poland should
have Upper Silesa, so clear did the Polish claim then
appear But, in the final draft the British, fearing
that Germany might not sign the treaty and thus
evil effects for themseves procured an amendment
providing for pIebiscte to determine the final pos
session Of the territory. ~ 49, 4. 81
On behalf Of the Poles the French procured an
agreement IN the treaty that the results should be
viewed BY districts. by towns and villages. since
Paris perceived that while portion Of the contested
area would certainly fall to Germany and that ma
jonty Of the total vote might be German, but that
certain areas along the Prussian-Polish frontier
would surely go for Poland, This detail is the main
cause of the controversy.
Now the real value of this Upper Silesan terri
tory economically speaking, derives from the exist
ence Of the second largest coal deposit the conti
nent Of Europe the so-called industrial triangle"
But this mneralized and ndustriazed area lies close
To- the Polish frontier and contains the largest per-
eenfsge Of Polish inhabitants, although it is worth
recalling that even German statistics concede that
the Slayonic element outnumbcrs the Teutonic in
Upper Silesia as whole.
THE plebiscte was held last spring and the re-
suits were about what the French had fore
seen The districts nearest to Germany that is the
north and west Of the Upper Silesan province voted
overwhelmingly for Germany. But these districts
in the main purely agricultural No dispute exists as
to them. although the Poles have, the basis of the
~Korfanty line" demanded fraction Of this region,
where the Poles in the majority. On the whole
however this claim cuts very little figure in the dis
pute- .g,s
In the so-calicd industrial area" the result was
quite different Here nine divisions, correspond
ing roughly to counties with OF these nine the
Poles carried fve and the Germans four, namely
Pess Rybnk. Kattowitz Country, Beuthen (coun-
try) and Tarnowitz. The Germans carried linden
burg and the three city of Konisshutte, Katto-
witz and Beuthen The total of the Poles thi
region was 33o276 and of the Germans only as,.3SS'
Thus the Polish majority was 4o,3S8. As for the
vote, viewed by municipal units, that is by towns,
cries and villages. here the Polish triumph
whclming. than hreequarters of these units
yof for the Polish union. sf ~.
In reality the fact Has this the German popua-
ton concentrated in four considerable industrial
cities Kattowitz, Beuhen, Konisshutte and linden
burg; the Polish Population occupied the whole of
the country, Moreover, the Polish population was
Indigenous while the German element in the cities
the product of systematic immigration Finally
the German vote was swelled enormously by the re-
turn sf fosmer German residents of the cities who
had gone to other parts of Germany, but came back
merely to cast their votes.
\ Thus what actually happened, would be indi-
Gated on color map showing the municipal units