Evening star., 1948-10-21

school and preaching services, thus refreshing
themselves with the bread Of life"
Nowadays it is far more fashionable for
parents to have or attend cocktail parties un-
til the wee hours Of Sunday morning, then they
are too tired to take their children to church
or think on the serious side of life To nv
mind it would be wise for parents and nom
parents to accept seriously the responsibility
which is theirs. SARAH N. DIGGS.
Defends Polish Frontier ChanSes
To the Editor of The Star:
An editorial entitled German Reparations'
in The Star of October IA contains among
others the following sentences: Russia and
Poland unilaterally seized Germany's East
ern provinces, including the great industrial
center OF Silesia. Also they and other East
ern countries expelled many millions of Ger
mans to the shrunken Reich"
The words "unilaterally seized" and "ex-
PEELED many millions of Germans" obviously
imply that the Soviet Union and Poland have
seized some German provinces by force and
against the wishes of their allies, and also in
the same manner expelled the Germans from
those provinces
l am deeply concerned lest this Gas dog
matte as it Is unfounded) statement in
newspaper known for its policy OF fairness
Is allowed to hurt the cause of my country
among your readers, as well as to contribute
to misunderstanding of the problem of
Germany.
Permit me to make some personal remarks:
am concerned with your editorial COM
ments not primarily because I am a member
OF the Polish Embassy, but for the simple
reason, that I myself am from this great
industrial district of Silesia," where for centu-
ries my family has been livng-one of the
Polish families which, even according to Ger
man statistics (never truthful in nationality
reportlng) formed majority of the popu-
lauon. MY grandfather-not to go any further
back-was imprisoned by the Germans for his
PolSn CONVICTIONS and my father was murder
ed for starting the first Polish uprising in
Upper silesia in 1919 myself have witnessed
the lncessant German attacks on the national
social and economic rights of the native Polish
population in these "Germanys Eastern prov
mces' until the outbreak of the last war, after
which the Germans openly admitted and pur-
sued their aim to annihilate the Polish nation.
Provinces Returned to Poland.
When, after this last war; Poland recovered
these provinces, all Poles and not least of all we
in "Germany's Eastern provinces" were deeply
gratified that justice was done at last with
~oNSSAAA>AAo
These are the facts: Cd At the Potsdam
Conference the participating big powers unani-
mously agreed that the territories east of the
Oder and Neisse rivers should be placed under
administration of the Polish State" The
Potsdam agreement clearly separated these
territories from Germany and withdrew them
from the control of the Allied Control Council,
"nlcn exercised sovereignty over the rest of
Germany In the name of the occupying DOW
ers The agreement in describing these ter
rltorles given to Poland uses the unequivocal
term former German territories"
90 1t also was unanimously agreed at the
Potsdam Conference that the three govern
ments recognize that transfer to Ger
many OF the German population or elements
thereof remaining in Poland Czechoslovakia
and Hungary will have to be undertaken" In
execution Of this agreement the Allies informed
Poland that: cat their 18th meeting held in
Berlin on November 20, 1945, the Allied Con-
troll Council for Germany approved plan for
the transfer of the German population to be
moved from Czechoslovakia, Austria, Hungary
and Poland, into the four occupied zones of
Germany the entire German population
to be moved from Poland (3la million persons)
will be admitted to the Soviet and British
zones OF occupation in Germany"
The Allied Control Council clearly states
that the entire German population from the
Polish territories, including, of course, as indi-
Gated by the number of persons to be trans
ferred, the recovered Western territory, should
be moved from Poland to Germany. The actual
transfer OF the German population was done
under the supervision of Allied officers in Red
Cross trains and generally the same transport
tation was provided and the same care taken
fort fhn
in war devastated country
Millions Of Poles Resettled.
1t should be we'll known that the former
German provinces, given to Poland at Potsdam,
were to provide shelter and new existence to
Poles transferred from the prewar Polish ter
ritories in the East, ceded to the Soviet Union
by virtue of Big Three decision at Yalta
The whole change of frontiers, as done at
Yalta and Potsdam, had its political, historical
and ethnic justification, recognized by all the
powers concerned Millions of Poles have thus
been moved and resettled. There is no sign
that any one who now raises his voice against
the Polish Western frontier thinks about the
fate OF the millions of Polish people.
The Polish nation has made and is making
considerable efforts in human labor and ex-
penditures to rehabilitate the recovered terri
tories, largely devastated during the war; We
are succeeding and we are building up coun-
try for the welfare of the people OF Poland,
and for peaceful development of the whole
of Europe, and this is the biggest change:
What had been until the last war a territory
where the native Polish population had been
continuously oppressed and which was known
as a spring board for aggression against East
ern Europe primarily and the whole of Europe
ultimately, is no& country of tremendous
peaceful development. 1t is no wonder that
Walt Whitman's verses on the pioneers have
been translated and widely read in those West
ern Polish lands.
We are firmly convinced that the decision
unanimously taken at Potsdam has not only
done justice to Poland but was also a basic
move in the direction of transforming Ger
many into q peaceful nation. The just deci-
sion Of the Big Three served the cause of