LEAGUS OF NATIONS.
Communicated C.699.1930.1. +n the Council. " " Geneva,
December 20th, 1930.
PROTECTION OF MINORITIES IN POLAND.
Note from the German Government, dated December 17th, 1930 concerning the situation of the German minority in the Voivodies of Posnan and Pomorze, (Poland)♦
Note by the Seoretary-General.
The Secretary-General has the honour to circulate
for the consideration of the Council a note from the German
Government, dated December 17th, 1930, with an annex, con
cerning the situation of the German minority in the
Voivodies of Posnan and Pomorze. renfilât ion.
Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the German Reich.
IV Po.11347/30.
Berlin, December 17th, 1930. To the Secretary-General, League of Nations.
Sir,
In the Polish Voivodeships of Posen and Pomerelia
a series of incidents have recently occurred in connection
with the elections to the Seym and Senate, which constitute
a breach of the provisions of the Treaty for the Protection
of Minorities concluded between the Allied and Associated
Powers and Poland on June 28th, 1919. In the Annex a_i
account is given of the proceedings by which the rights of
the German minority have been infringed.
The German Government invites the attention of the
Council of the League of Nations to these proceedings under
Article 12, paragraph 2, of the above-mentioned Treaty.
I should be grateful if you could have this question
placed on the agenda of the next session of the Council of
the league of Nations. For a long time past the German Gcverraient has been
following with the utmost anxiety the development of the
situation of the German minority in the Voivode ships of Posen
and Pomerelia. Although no such outrages against the minority
have occurred in these districts as in Upper Silesia, the
systematic anti-German agitation carried on by certain sections
of the population in Posen and Pomerelia under the eyes of the
Polish authorities is increasingly inflaming the national passions
of the Polish majority; and hence increasingly endangering the
position of the German minority*
Since the beginning of the election campaign which preceded the elections to the Polish Seym and Senate, the posi
tion of the minority has grown materially worse, particularly
in Pomerelia. Anti-German outrages have become more and more
frequent, and Germans have been severely hampered in the
exercise of their electoral rights. All kinds of devices
have been used to prevent the German minority from giving free
expression to their political desires, Tr^hat extent the
Polish authorities have infringed the ri^its of the German
minority will be seen frcm the following examples:
1. As in Polish Unper Silesia, propaganda supported by
the authorities was conducted in Posen and Pomerelia in favour
of an open ballot, this being regarded as a means of exercising
'pressure on German voters. This demand constituted a parti
cular hardship for persons who were in any way dependent on the
official authorities. How far these authorities went in the.
âttempt to influence the elections is shown, for example, by
the behaviour of the Kreis school inspector of Bromberg
(Bydgoscz) who instructed the German teachers in his school
district, in writing, to vote publicly and for candidates
approved by the Government. In another case, a German - 2 -
official employed by the railways under a private contract was informed shortly before the elections by his official superior that the authorities were always entitled to reduce their staff for economic reasons and that this right would be used after the elections against those who had not voted for the Government party.
2. In many cases it was made impossible for the
Germans in Pomerelia to carry out the preliminary work in connection with the elections. For example, at Fordon and Schuli ïz (Solec in the Kreis of Tonun) the election agents of the German minority were hindered from addressing the constituents owing to the fact that the innkeepers of theso localities had been forbidden by the mayors of the communes to let their rooms for this purpose, on pain of having their licenses withdrawn.
3, In election district 29, North Pomerelia, 12 lead ing German canvasser^ were arrested a few weeks before the elections. Three of them, Ml. Schiemann, Taube and
Bamberger, are now, four weeks after the elections, still imprisoned at Starrard {Starogrod). Among those arrasted who have since been released, wore the son of the leading candidate of the German list for the electoral district, the farmer Tatulinski, as well as a joiner, Bradtke of
Neustadt (ü7e j hero wo ), the local leader of the German Catholics, who was a candidate lower tiown on the German list. None of thorn were informed of the reasons for tneir arrest.
On the arrest of Taube, thread of the German election office at Neustadt, all the papers of the office were seized, and only returned five days before the elections. - 4 -
4. On November 11th, two election agents of the German party, Raikowski and Mauritz, who were going to bring voting papers to the German electors, were arrested at Dirschau
(Tczew) station ancl their papers were seized. When they were released from the nolice prison in the evening, they encountered just outside the police station a gang of some 15 men who tore out of their hands the papers which had just been given back to them, and so belaboured them tyith sticks that they were obliged to seek medical assistance.
This took place under the eyes of the police, who made no attempt to interfere or pursue the assailants. From the circumstances it is clear that the assailants must have known the time when the two Germans were going to be released.
5. In various places, for example in Miihlbanz (Mitobadz) near Dirschau (Tczew) and at Linde (Linja) near Neustadt
(Wejherowo), German voting papers were taken from the election agents of the German candidates and other German electors. A ma& distributing voting papers on behalf of the German candi dates in front of the polling station Zelenie in the Kreis of
Putzig (Powiat Mors id. ) was forced to leave his post, although he had taken up his position some 300 metres away from the polling station. The frontier official Skutta, when ordering him to move off, threatened him with arrest and many years’ imprisonment if he did not imediately stop distributing voting papers. « • 5 °
6. Sergeant Podz?n ccmc on Nov ember 23rd, 1,3., on
the dey of the elections for the Senate, to the Garman settler
ICand at Zduny In the Ki'eia of Stargard (Starogro'd) and aooused
him of having voted for the German list of candidates Ko. 12
in the elections to the Diet on November 16th. Ha threatened
him with the loss of his holding, if he did not vota for the
Polish Government list No. 1 in the elections to the Senate.
7. Drastic action was taken in voting district No. 30
in Graudenz (Crudeiadz), with the result of excluding the entire
body of German electors in the district from the elections to the
Seym on November 16th. In this voting district the German list
was declared invalid, which involved the exclusion from the
election of some 30,000 Ge.man votes. The grounds given for this
action were that the list had not enough valid signatures. 50
signatures are required: end the German list in Graudenz had
received 100 signatures as a measure of precaution. But the
Eleatoral Commission objected to altogether 76 of these signatures, partly on the ground of alleged non-Polish nationality of the
signatories, partly on the ground of formal defects in the signatures. These defects are all of such e trifling character
that the political intention of the Electoral Commission, namely, to exclude the German votes, is perfectly plain. For example,
16 signatures wore declcrsd invalid on the allogad groand that they were illegible, although in view of the clear particulars ~ 6 -
given of age, calling and address, there co dd be no doubt in
a small town such as Graudenz as to the identity of the individ
uals in question. In the case of 22 electors it was objected
that they had entered their names on the list of candidates with
e different address to that given in the list of electors. In
12 of these cases this was wholly untrue; in 8 eases the business
address was given in the list of candidates, wfrile in the list
of voters the private address was given; in the other two cases
the only error was that the street number was written wrong, but
here too, there could be no doubt as to the identity of the
persons concerned. In the case of seven other voters a slight
difference in the particulars of age given in the candidates'
list and in the electors’ list was made .a pretext, for striking out the name. Where the particulars in this case really did differ from one another, this was due to trifling oversights in the
official list. In eleven cases the particulars of occupation were
said not to tally. For example, the signature of one woman voter was declared invalid because she wasx desari bed in the list of
candidates as "Kontoristin,T*, whereao in the list of votera ahe was described as vBtiroangeete 111en*, while another was disqualified because she appeared in the list of candidates as a "rentière” whereas in the voters’ list sne was described as "of no occupation’.'
The two words both mean ”olerl'T Transie tor. - 7 -
8. Again, in the electoral district of Graudenz,
as in Upper Silesia, the right to vote was contested in
the case of thousands of members of the minority on the
ground that they weru not Polish nationals. 1,500 cases
of this kind alone can bs shown to have occurred. Objec
tions were lodged on the basis of protests by third parties,
and the Electoral Commission broke the rules of the election
regulations by not asking for proof of the correctness of
the particulars on which the protests were baaed. In almost
every instance those disqualified were persons who had lived
from their birth in the electoral district. Many of them
had taken part in every election up to the present and had
even served in the Polish army.
In addition the attitude of the Polish authorities
made it impossible for many persons whose right to vote was
contested to bring proof of the possession of Polish
nationality In time. The documents submitted, for example,
passports and military passes, and even the official legiti
mation cards with statements of the nationality, were not
recognised and special certificates of nationality issued
by the Starosts or Presidents of the Munioipality were asked
for, To obtain these in tim« was impossible in the short
"period available, especially for persons living in the
country* Many hundreds of Gorman voters immediately made
the requisite application to the Starost at Graudenz attaching
all the necessary documents. When the Starost postponed action on these applications, some of the applicantb desired to have recourse to other steps for which the law provides in order to prevent the cancellation of their names on the electoral lists, and in partiealar to appeal to the Supreme Court in accordance with the pro visions of the election regulations. For this they required the original documents submitted to the Starost, but the Starost deolined to hand them over, thus depriving the German electors of any possibility of recourse to other methods to obtain justice. The electors did not receive the certificates for which they had applied from the Starost until the time-limit prescribed for proof of possession of the franchise had already expired.
In numerous other cases members of the minority received notice of the protests against their right to vote too l&te. According tu the election regulations these protests should have been commuaseated tu them not later than October 11th: but the District ^lootoral Com missions did not give notice of the objections to the parties concerned until some time between October 14th and loth, so that the latter could not submit proof of their right to vote within the time-limit fixed in the election regulations which expired on October 17th. In some cases tho communications wore actually not sent to the parties concerned until r-f*ter October 17th, and that v/ithout any extension of the viir.c-lin.it for showing proof. 9u m the aloe 0oral dieTricts of fhorn fTorrjd) and
Sam i' c r ( o tamo uU.ly ) tho District 31e o tcral O&mniiasicns refuasd
to el-w; tho district 3.1 ate of Gorman candidates for clcotion
to the Seva to bo linkad up with the State list of the Doutschor
Volcsbriid e Ïj-o refusal in both electoral dig trie to wag based
on the Ciounô that tho description of the diet riot lists was
not Identical with that ox the Gorman State liatu The district
list was ho a do d ’’List of the Geruan electoral bloo whereas
tho State list v :.î beaded "German electoral. bloo,T. This
purely formal ob icoticn oho\?3 clearly the political intention
behind tho decision, which r/aa not modified e?en whan the
accredit ed represent at 1 to of the German list submitted an
application for ccrrootion in the regular fern to the President
of the District Electoral Commission. Tho very real importance
of linking up the district lists with the State liste consista
in the fact that under tbs current regulations a party obtains
g place in the State list if the district list bearing the sciv?o
number wins a seat in six different electoral districtsa Such
a success for the minority iiad to bo prevented at all costs„
Tho same fate as had befallen the election lists to the
Scyn in Thorn and Samtsr, befell tho German list of candidates
for the Senate in pomerelia in Lha elections on November fiord,
-0, In the c-’lootcral district of Bromberg (Bydgoszcz)
an attempt was mads at the o"1.cotions to the Seym, with the
oo-cpe.ret icn of the Relish authorit iea <. to put up an opposition
German list in order to dctaoh as many votos as possible
from the official German list, This dissident Gorman
party m d been fo vru3 od at tho instigation of tho - ?.o
Starost of u.-amborg City a ad K m is , who ’v~s elso the official electoral commissioner, and tho candidates of its list were in many cases highly que ct ion a bio clomenbc.
One of them, named Fiolaraki, hr.a only just been released from prison after serving a sentenco of three and a he If years for burglary in seven cases. The agent of the list, named Karl '.7eober, had been sentenced to six months imprisonment for extortion. The election propaganda for this list was quite openly paid for out of public funds, as is shown clearly by the fact that the candidates and other representatives of the list were able, in spite of their notorious personal lack of means, to spend large suits of money on propaganda for the election. The aront Karl Weeber lives in the poorest circumstances. The chief crate!Hate,
Kindermann, who stated et a public meet In g that he was r-eying for the election propaganda, hud a number of his bills pro tested at the end of October, The fact 1 he support of the dissident German list by the Polish official authorities is shorn further by tho circumstance that copies of tho
Bromberg paper ’D-utscher Kundschau” ana of the "Dansigcr
Neueste Kachrichten" when delivered by pose had in aany cases voting papers of the dissident list attached to them, and these cannot have found their nay into the newspapers until the latter had been posted at the official Polish pest offices.,
A German farmer at Krone in the Kreis of Bromberg received a voting paper of the dissident list in an officially stamped service letter from the office of the commune to which he belongs (Wo jtostwo) «.
To re-capitulate, the following fer.t.R put on record: Largo TiViubero of the German minority in Poznania, srÙ. above all in Ponorelia, xorc. excluded from the exercise of their right to veto by arbitrary action on the part of tne Po-ish author it ie? v-";lch cm not be reconciled with tli o existing regulations, Wliei c the minority was able »o exercise its vutiiug i-iglr;e, the free oxprstsica of their wishes we.s subjected to tic most towerfal pressurée Til 33 conduct cn the pait of the authorities conflicts with the provisions of Article 7 of the T_ 3 a tv for the Protection of
Minorities,
The German Government considers it necessary for the Council of the League of Nations to take the necessary steps to r 2 store the rights of the minority as guaranteed by treaties and Idws, and so to remove the grove deager3 which would inevitably arise from the continuance in the future of these conditions of oppression ar.l leprlvation of rights.