POLES AT WAR.

Taranaki Daily News, 10 May 1921, Page 5

POLES AT WAR.

CHAOS AND TURMOIL. INSURGENTS MOSTLY BOYS. WEAKNESS OF ALLIES. By Telegraph.—Press Assn —Copyright. London, May 8. The Sosnowitez correspondent of The Times pictures the chaos and turmoil in Silesia. The authority of the Allies, backed by ten thousand soldiers, tanks and artillery, is set at nought by the insurgents and our distinguished colonels are forced to parley with beardless pitboys. Korfantz’s commanders, are ruthlessly expelling the Allies from the country. The insurgent army is a ragged band, including women, but mostly boys. Fifty thousand are armed. The discipline is excellent, the older men acting as police. The patrol system is in operation throughout the country and, as the result, there is no license or disorder except in the case of youthful exuberants who fire rifles and throw bombs in exultation at the success of their national cause.

Korf ant z controls the whole movement. His principal lieutenant is a young German officer. He has brought industry and the railway to a standBtil, closed the shops and stopped the publication of newspapers. He refuses to allow a ton of coal to be raised until the so-called Korfantz line is recognised. He is ready to sit tight and, backed by Polish national opinion, to defy the world. The French beat off the insurgents’ attacks at Kattowitz with heavy Josses, but Korfantz holds undisputed sway of the surrounding country. The tanks did grim execution among the Poles, but they do not seem to mind. The news from Warsaw indicates that the government has lost control of the pountry. —Times.

SECRET DIPLOMACY. RUSSO-GERMAN TREATIES. Received May 9, 5.5 p.m. London, May 8. The Berlin correspondent of the Daily Telegraph, referring to the Silesian situation. says there may be something significant in the fact that a RussoGerman commercial treaty was signed on Friday. It has been long believed th it the Sevres Treaty preceded the one just signed, and that it pledged help to Germany in Silesia by exerting pressure on the Eastern Polish frontier.—Aus.N.Z. Cable Assn.