POLISH BRUTALITY

Hokitika Guardian, 31 January 1931, Page 6

POLISH BRUTALITY

GERMANS ALLEGE TERRORISM. ASSAULTS AND TERRORISM. DRAGOONING AT SILESIAN POLLS Deliberaie robbing of the German minority in Upper Silesia of voting rights in (lie recent elections to the Polish Sejm and Senate and brutal acts of terrorism against the Teutonic minority (including attacks on young women and old men by Polish insurreeIbinaries, with the connivance and even secret support, of the Polish authorities) were charged by the German Government in a Note handed to Sir Eric Drummond, Secretary General oi the League of Nations, by Dr Voclkers, German Consul General at Geneva. In demanding that discussion til liie Polish tactics in Upper Silesia be put upon the agenda of the Council of the League at its .January meeting, the No,to said that Germany protested against such methods, “not only in the name of right, but also in the name of humanity,” and requested that the measures provided in the peace treaties for the protection of minorities be jint into effect. 15LOCKING VOTES. The German Government alleged the Polish officials in Upper Silesia prevented the Germans of that region from voting in two ways, first by wholesale discrediting of German voters on the ground that they did not possess Polish citizenship papers (it was inserted that in the constituencies of Kattowiez and Koenighsuette alone thirty thousand German voters were disqualified by this process), and second, through tile propaganda of the Pilsudski bloc (supporters of -Marshal Josef Pilsudski) in favour df casting all votes in public. Polish “insurgents”—the uniformed militia which is supported by the Polish Government and which was formed originally by Wojeiech Korfaiitv to win Upper Silesia for Poland- in 11)21- were, said to have been posted in the polling-booths and to have made a note of every individual who voted in secret as an enemy to the existing regime. The second part of the German Note was devoted to charges of “unheardof acts of terror sm” committed by these Polish insurgents against the German minority. The “ten most outrageous cases” were citbd with names_ addresses and dates. The note charged that deliberate action against the German minority was planned months ago by the Polish authorities.

Tim Government asserted that the acts of violence’ were not excesses common to election campaigns the world over, because in Upper Silesia they wen- committed solely against the Gorman population. Therefore,' it was urged, these acts ceased to do a matter of internal politics and became fit questions for settlement by the League of Nations.

CONN 1 VANCE OF AUTHORITIES

[ Tiic Note charged Hint the campaign | of the Polish insurgents was planned and executed in agreement with the leading Polish officials, and,- as proof of the close co-operaetiou between tin* authorities and the perpetrateors of the acts, stated that in Upper Silesia the Governor of the province, .A I. rGaszynski, was chairman of the organisation of Polish insurgents. The police were aceued of neglecting to intervene to protect attacked German inhabitants or arriving on the scene, so late that the need for their sei \ ices had passed. The futility of the Polish police was laid by the German Government partly to their -sympathising secretly with the insurgents and partly to their being awed by the knowledge of the close intimacy existing between the gangsters and the civil a uthorities. Among the characteristic eases of terrorism alleged by the German nine were: ] I'ii'eaking; up German political meet- I mgs and heating the audiences. ! Assaults on peaceful German citizens by Polish gangsters armed with canes and clubs, who whipped their victims until (hey became unconscious. Destruction of German libraries.

Torture of politically prominent • *»;. mans by removing their shoes and heating the soles of their feet. Destruction of homes and Jfnrrrt n ■ belonging to the German inli.ibibu rs. The Note declared that the incelenm cited therein were only a few < I Mu. infinite number of acts of term •• »• which it- is prepared to submit wd.li proofs to the Council of the 1.-rngic i. 'xt January. the Government .■ ■.tried that it hud taken into consuh.ration thousands of letters add.■•■-•;,>(! '<> Germans bearing the stamp of the insurgents’ organisation, in which,,, the recipients were warned that if ihev failed to vote for the Polish l : -.ij#*4tey would have to “leave house a nr* h. me or else draw up their last will and testament.”