Jsrss.] ° ' ; C. 308.193I-1

jsrss.] ° * cM N ° ' ; c. 308.1 9 3 I-1. Geneva, May 16th, 1931. LEAGUE OF NATIONS PROTECTION OF MINORITIES IN POLAND POSITION OF THE GERMAN MINORITIES IN THE V01V0DIES OF SILESIA, POZNAN AND POMORZE' Note by the Secretary-General. The Secretary-General has the honour to communicate herewith to the Council for consideration a letter, with annexes, from the Polish delegate accredited to the League of Nations, dated May 14th, 1931, and containing the information referred to in the report on this question submitted by the representative of Japan and adopted by the Council at its meeting on January 24th, 1931. 1 Documents C.665, C.681, 0.699.1930.! and C.22, C.58, C.66 and C. 138.1931.1. S'd.N. 470 (F.) 5/31. 280 (A.) 6/31. Imp. Kundig. [T ranslation.] LETTER FROM THE POLISH DELEGATE ACCREDITED TO THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS TO THE SECRETARY-GENERAL. Geneva, May 14th, 1931. With reference to the resolution of the Council of the League of Nations dated January 24th, 1931 (document C.138.1931.1), I have the honour to forward to you herewith, for communi cation to the Council of the League of Nations, a statement of the measures which the Polish Government has taken as a result of the electoral incidents which occurred in the Upper Silesian part of the Voivodie of Silesia in November 1930. Annex 1 contains detailed information on the results of the investigations ordered in connection with the different cases mentioned in the petition of the “ Deutscher Volksbund ” and on the penalties inflicted and measures of compensation taken as a result of these investigations. Annex 2 outlines the present position in Polish Upper Silesia and mentions the general measures which the Polish Government has decided to adopt to promote the peaceful co-operation of all the elements of the Silesian population, making clear once more the attitude of the administrative authorities towards the German minority in Silesia and towards certain majority organisations. (Signed) F. S o k a l , Minister Plenipotentiary. Annex 1. RESULTS OF THE INVESTIGATIONS INSTITUTED BY THE POLISH GOVERNMENT INTO THE VARIOUS CASES MENTIONED IN THE PETITION FROM THE “ DEUTSCHER VOLKSBUND ”, AND PENALTIES IMPOSED AND COMPENSATION GRANTED AS A RESULT OF THESE INVESTIGATIONS. As the Polish Government has already informed the Council of the League in its memorandum dated January 9th, 1931 (document C.66.1931.1), exhaustive investigations have been instituted in all the cases enumerated in the petition from the “ Volksbund ” with a view to the discovery of the guilty parties, and irrespective of whether official action was taken in respect of these offences or whether private charges were laid, and whether the injured parties informed the police of these incidents or not. The result of these investigations carried out by the police was brought to the knowledge of the public prosecutors. No account was taken of the desire of a certain number of the injured parties, who stated that they did not wish to take proceedings against the offenders. The district prosecutor, being of opinion that a full enquiry was desirable in the public interest, instituted a judicial investigation into all the cases raised, although some of the alleged offences hardly appeared to be of a nature to bring into play the action of the public authorities. The district prosecutor, as the representative of the Attorney-General, is required, under Article 53 of the Polish Penal Code, to lay and prosecute the charge in cases where proceedings are instituted by official action. In the case of proceedings instituted on account of private complaints, the injured party must lay and prosecute the complaint in the form of a private charge (Article 60 P.P.C.); in such cases, the Public Prosecutor may take up the private charge on behalf of the Attorney-General, if he considers this necessary in the public interest (Article 69 P.P.C.). Thus, irrespective of the public or private nature of the complaint, the Public Prosecu tor, in the course of the enquiries instituted by him, summoned the injured parties and had them questioned by the magistrate. In the case of offences giving rise to private action, the interested parties were informed by the Public Prosecutor that he was prepared to prosecute the charge on behalf of the Attorney-General ; moreover, private indictments were drawn up by the Public Prosecutor and signed in his presence by the injured parties. When such private charges were laid, the Public Prosecutor brought the case before the court and at the same time stated that he would prosecute on behalf of the State. Private charges in regard to which the injured parties refused to lay a complaint or re q u e s te d that proceedings should be abandoned were not proceeded with for lack of formal grounds on which to bring an official charge. In the cases on which particular stress was laid in the petition from the “ Volksbund ”, investigations were carried out on the spot in order to obtain more accurate information regarding the injured parties and the offenders. Special account was taken of the necessity for confronting — 3 — the injured parties with police officers in order to ascertain their attitude and conduct. Special enquiries, and enquiries with reference to searches were carried out in order to establish the true aspect of the facts. As a result of these enquiries, the prosecutor of the Katowice district court laid complaints in 121 cases; in 104 cases the injured parties, although they were informed by the prosecutor of the necessity for laying a complaint that could be proved, in regard to which he was prepared to take action, failed to bring such charges. In most cases, they stated that they did not desire the punishment of the offenders ; many of them (twenty-seven) expressed astonishment that their cases had been included in the petition from the “ Volksbund ”, since they had not asked the latter to take action and had not authorised it to do so. Consequently, they were] not consulted in the matter. In fourteen cases the injured parties brought to the court charges drawn up and handed to them by the “ Volksbund These charges were subsequently withdrawn by the parties concerned either before the opening or in the course of the proceedings, so that they were non-suited (Articles 67 and 68 P.P.C.). In ten cases, as the offenders were not discovered, proceedings were suspended until they should be found. Proceedings were abandoned in twenty-two cases owing to lack of evidence that a punishable act had been committed, failure to identify the persons injured, or a false charge having been brought. Finally, it should be noted that, among the cases included in the petition from the “ Volksbund ”, four are cases of a definitely criminal nature for which no political grounds existed. Up to April 25th, 1931, 104 cases had been heard, with the following results : in fifty-two cases the accused were convicted and sentenced to fines of a few zlotys and up to six months’ imprisonment ; in fifty-one cases they were acquitted owing to lack of sufficient evidence; in one case the injured party withdrew the charge during the proceedings. In eleven cases, for reasons over which the court had no control—such as, for instance, the serious illness of the accused or of the witnesses, the non-appearance of witnesses before the Court, or the necessity for summoning new witnesses—the hearing has not yet taken place or has been postponed by decision of the court, in some cases several times over. The judicial authorities mean to do their utmost to complete the hearing of such cases as soon as possible. In some cases, in which the accused were acquitted, and in others, in which they were convicted, the Public the Prosecutor has appealed. Apart from the formal reprimands administered to nine officials, which has already been brought to the knowledge of the Council of the League, disciplinary proceedings have been taken against the officials accused by the “ Volksbund ”. As a result of these proceedings, six officials were convicted, one of them being dismissed; five were acquitted for lack of evidence or because the charge was found to be false. Finally, in six cases the officials against whom a false charge had been made laid a complaint against their accusers, and the disciplinary proceedings have accordingly been suspended until the result of the action brought before the court is known. Compensation to injured parties was first granted at the beginning of March 1931, when the judicial proceedings were nearing their end. Official payment was ordered to be made to all persons who had sustained material damage to their property or on account of the loss of salary or wages during their illness, irrespective of whether the charges were brought by the injured parties or not, whether the offenders were discovered or not, and whether the judgment delivered took the form of a conviction or an acquittal. In principle, the declaration made by the injured party was taken as a basis for estimating the damage sustained. However, in the case of flagrantly unreasonable claims, the amount of the compensation was fixed by means of an enquiry on the spot by an ad hoc commission or a representative of the German minority in the commune. In a few exceptional cases in which it was not possible to arrive at an agreement with regard to the amount of the compensation even by this means, the compensation will be fixed by the court as the outcome of a civil action.

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