Evening star., 1947-11-23
Poles Draw
LineinWeSt
Take a Firm Stand
on Border With
Germany
BY the Asseeiotsd Press

BY the Asseeiotsd Press
POzNAN, Poland. - Poland has
staked out her border with Ger
many along the Oder and Neisse
Rivers and says she'll fight any one
who tries to jump her claim.
Poles insist their western frontier
is Anal. Soviet Russia says so, too.
But America and Britain have had
a different view and may argue
otherwise again at the Big Four
Conference of Foreign Ministers
meeting next week in London to
draft the German peace treaty.
Millions for Industry
Poles who have resettled in the
former Eastern German lands hand
ed over to Polish administration at
Potsdam pending final settlement
aren't exactly worried about Lon
don ordering any change.
But neither are they cocksure.
That's the reason they're anxious
to show the world that what was
once German now is purely Polish.
They're striving every way they
can to bolster the Oder-Neisse line.
They feel that's the best answer to
any repetition of the American pro-
posal at Moscow last spring that a
special commission be named to
study final marking of the Polish
German border.
The government has concentrated
q large part of the nations ener-
gies in resettling and developing the
$1,000 square miles of territory
gained from Germany In return for
giving up 100000 square miles to
Soviet Russia in the east.
The government says 5,283, 900
Poles have been moved into the
former German lands and the figure
should hit 100000 by the end OF
this year or early in 1948.
The government poured an equiv
alent to $500, ,000, 900 into develop
ing the western lands during the
first IS months after the war. That
figure may reach close to $1,000
100000 by early 194S. Much Of the
money has gone to getting indus
tries operating again. The govern
ment says the western territories
already produce one-third of the
nations coal and industrial prod
ucts.
Short on Materials
But whatever has been done,
Poles have a long, long way to &c
to put life back into the ghostly
deserted, war-ruined towns and
villages north and northwestward
of this throbbing industrial city To
szczecin (Stettin) and far south be-
yond Wroclaw, once the German
industrial city Of Breslau.
There are hundreds of war dam
aged houses which could be quickly
made habitable, but no one Is living
there. Poles are short on build
ing materials.
Rich farmlands lie fallow for
many miles along highways as far
as the eye can see. An approx
mately 5OO-mile automobile tour
disclosed only three tractors in op-
GRAFTON. On most farms, a single
horse does the work ordinarily as
signed to two or three.
Despite the governments drive
to shift everything usable there to
help settlers, there is mile after
mile of dangling telephone wires
and wrecked telephone poles.
That condition continues right to
the gates OF war-blasted Szczecin
itself-once the great port city for
Berlin called stettin. Most of the
bridges over the Oder-for rail and
auto trafic-still are temporary
wooden structures.
In all this section Of the western
territories, German signs have dis
appeared. but many peasants in the
fields still wear tattered green Ger
man Army coats or trousers.
Farm Recovery Slow
In the western territories Po-
land received 1900, 900 acres OF
good farmlAnds. A government re-
port recently said 100000 acres
had been parceled out to nearly
100000 families Of Polish settlers.
The great stretches of fallow land
n not confined to north and north
westward Of Poznan alone, but ex-
tends far into the south.
While Poland has much TO do
On the agricultural front in the
west and in getting more settlers
into homes, the industrial score
sheet looks much brighter.
wroclaw and all of Lower Silesia
is Europe's Second Ruhr" Here
almost 10 per cent OF the entire
productive capacity of NaA industry
was once concentrated.
Since the end Of the war Poles
have worked hard to pump out
mines flooded by the Germans, to
rebuild chemical and steel plants.
Today, the government paints a
bright picture of the results.
1t says the rate of production Of
Lower Silesian and coal mines else
where in the western territories III
dicates an output Of 100000 10
10000, 900 tons of coal in 1947-one-
third of the nations total output.
Steel mills in former Nazi Silesis
have a capacity of 100000 tons of
steel annually. Coke production will
run, on the basis of present opera
tions, to 100000 tons; pig iron,
1900, 900, and rolled products, 1,500,-
600,
In Wroclaw railway shops are
turning out hundreds of railway
cars and locomotives. Chemical and
metals plants are well ahead of
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