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.