The Birmingham age-herald., 1921-08-21

cent Polish. These figures would have been quite different if the ques- tion had been put as it is today: "Do you Silesians want to be united or dlyided?" Therefore, there has been no decision as to which part woIld belong to Germany and which to Po- land, until this question has been an- swered.
 The League of Nations ought not to reckon only with coal iron, tin and lead shares and dividends, nov. ing the people of communities about like pawns on chess board, but should present international and ra :, tional rights.
 VIII Tear Assunder
 Is industry necessary to the whole continent to be torn asunder, and a people still young in civilization split apart because France de- maHds control of Europes coal and iron and an eastern bulwark against possible German remilitarization?
 It does not concern the league which part of Silesia France has promised the Poles, for any such ses cret treaty Is breach of the cove nant. Hundreds of thousands of S- 1esians do not want to belong to Ger many. Still more would not for he world belong to Poland. Even the most skillful partition would weaken industry and would not stop guerilla warfare and murders. The Paris brelkfast table policy overlooked this and also the question as to whether verdict incompatible with Article sS of the Versailles treaty is binding on those principally inter- ested, namely, Germany, Poland and thee always forgotten Upper Si- lesians.
 Prime Minister Lloyd George and Premier Briand, whose heroic names of David and Aristides fit like wide coats on thin men, wanted to avoid an open breach, in. the entente and so have used the council of the League of Nations as subterfuge. In which the representatives of Spain, Brazil and China will help decide the fate of country quite unknown and indifferent to them
 European Question
 Thus. we have an answer to this "purely European question:" as Am bassador Harvey interpreted Prssi- dent Harding's verdict to be made with three powers of other conti- nents, Japan presiding
 Poor Europe must accustom her self to the idea that the day of ner sovereign omnipotence is over
 The British dominions, which at London forbade a renewal of the Jap anese treaty, also warned energeti- cally against a further yielding to France
 France an agricultural nation, can feed and clothe her 3s.00o, 900 people from her own produce. She has sufficient coal, or can get 1t by an exchange of iron ore. Yet she clings to the superstition that she can force Germany for centuries to pay countless billions in indemnity. l will not dispute the moral right to this demand. for in Europes all loo war-like history almost every con- querer has demanded it. But .oday 1t Is as unrealizable as that some Flu. ropean nation should redeem it's bank note with gold.
 Frances Demand
 To fulfill what France demands. Germany would have to build up nd operate the most tremendous export machine the world ever saw, and cram all the worlds markets with goods. France. with her specialized exports. could stand this, but not England. who must pay for necessary raw stuffs with exports. England's trade already Is restricted enough ly high wages and the insolvency If her former customers, to say nothing of the increased production of the American workman. Englands eco homie life is condemned to death. if she Is squeezed between a gigantic American export and German ex- port machine. cheaply fed with paper wages.
 Since Englands fate depends upon her export activity. she cannot allow Germany under the whip of her sanc- tion to be forced to capture the world markets with a nernetual