Page:EB1922 - Volume 32.djvu/394

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376
SCHLICH—SCHREINER, O.

been the representative of the Danish population in the German Reichstag. The German Government declared its readiness to apply President Wilson's programme for the " self-deter- mination " of nationalities to the Danish portions of Northern Schleswig. The Treaty of Versailles provided for a plebiscite in that region. The original intention was to take the plebiscite throughout the whole of the Duchy of Schleswig, which for this purpose was to be divided into three zones. Finally, the idea of taking a plebiscite in the most southerly zone was abandoned, as the population of that district was purely German.

Article 109 of the Treaty established two zones for the plebiscite. The northern, or first, zone was bounded on the S. by a line passing through the islands of Rom and Sylt, keeping S. of Tondern, and then running to the N. of Flensburg, through the middle of the Flensburger Fjord, and leaving the island of Alsen to the N. of the line. The second zone included the is- lands of Sylt and Fohr and ran on, after bulging somewhat to the S. to the Flensburger Fjord on the east. Within this second zone lay Flensburg. The whole of the plebiscitary area had to be evacuated by the German troops and civil authorities within 10 days after the Treaty of Peace came into force. Powers of administration were transferred to an Inter-Allied Commis- sion. In the first zone the plebiscite was to take place, at latest, three weeks after the German evacuation; in the second zone, at latest, five weeks after the plebiscite in the first zone. The decision regarding the assignment of territory to Denmark or to Germany on result of the plebiscite was to be taken on the proposal of the Inter-Allied Commission with due consideration for 1 the special economic and geographical conditions of the region. The Danish Government appointed the former Reichs- tag deputy Hansen to the post of Danish minister for Schleswig, with the task of maintaining Danish interests in the plebiscitary area. All persons, without distinction of sex, who had com- pleted their twentieth year and either had been born in the plebiscitary area or had lived there before Jan. i 1900, were entitled to vote. On the German side, a German committee for Schleswig was formed, and was entrusted with German propaganda and preparations for the plebiscite.

On Jan. 15 1920 the Inter-Allied Commission, which had previously assembled at Copenhagen, took over the administra- tion of the plebiscitary area. The German officials had to leave this territory, and their place was taken by native Landriite and administrative officials appointed by the Commission. The German troops evacuated the region by Jan. 20. A battalion of British troops was stationed at Flensburg, a French battalion at Hadersleben and another at Sonderburg. The Inter-Allied Commission was composed of Marling (Great Britain), Claudel (France), Heyste (Norway), and von Sydow (Sweden). It promptly issued regulations for the plebiscite, dealing with the voting qualification and the registration of votes. A control over persons entering the plebiscitary area was also established. A vigorous propaganda was initiated both on the Danish and on the German side and led to a number of incidents especially at Flensburg. The plebiscite in the first zone took place on Feb. 10. On the whole it passed off quietly. It resulted in a great Danish majority; 75,151 votes were cast for Denmark and 25,231 for Germany. The larger towns, Tondern, Hoyer, etc., had in all cases a German majority, while the rural population, with the exception of a few German enclaves, voted almost in its entirety Danish. The campaign was much keener in the second zone, where the polling day had been fixed for March 14. There were sharp conflicts, particularly at Flensburg, where the burgomaster, Todsen, was expelled by the Inter-Allied Commission. When a prohibition against the display of flags on the day of the plebiscite was issued on March 6, the German assessors of the Inter-Allied Com- mission resigned their posts. Repeated collisions with the French troops of occupation took place at Flensburg, and were not unattended by bloodshed. The plebiscite resulted in a great German success; about 51,000 votes were recorded for Germany and only 13,000 for Denmark. There were only two communes which had a Danish majority.

The determination of the frontier took a long time. Germany advocated the so-called Tiedje line, while on the Danish side propaganda was made for the so-called Clausen h'ne. The Council of Ambassadors of the Allies gave its decision at the beginning of June. On June 15 the president of the Paris Peace Conference handed the German delegation a note in which the German-Danish frontier was fixed as follows. It begins at the entrance to the Flensburger Fjord, passes through the middle of that fjord, reaches the mainland immediately to the N. of Flensburg, leaves Flensburg to the S. and then follows a line which reaches the North Sea at Sieltoft. The island of Sylt falls to Germany, the island of Rom to Denmark. On the whole this meant the adoption of the Clausen line. The territory assigned to Denmark was at once handed over to her on June 15, while the territory that remained German was forth- with placed once more under German administration. German troops reentered Flensburg on June 16 after the members of the Inter-Allied Commission had left the town.

The detailed settlement of the territory to be ceded to Den- mark was effected by a treaty concluded between Germany and Denmark and signed in the middle of July. At the be- ginning of July Denmark gradually took over the administra- tion of the ceded districts, the administration of justice being the last department to become Danish. It is worth noting that the day of the plebiscite in the second zone coincided with the Kapp Putsch in Berlin. (C. K.*)


SCHLICH, SIR WILLIAM (1840- ), British forestry expert, was born at Darmstadt Feb. 28 1840, and educated there and at the university of Giessen. In 1866 he entered the Indian Forests Department, became conservator of Forests in 1871, and ten years later inspector-general of Forests to the Government of India. He was one of the pioneers of the study of forestry in England, organizing the first school at Cooper's Hill, which was afterwards transferred to Oxford in 1905. He was appointed pro- fessor of Forestry at Oxford the same year. Among his books on the subject are A Manual of Forestry (1889-95; 3 vols.), and For- estry in the United Kingdom (1904). In 1901 he was elected a fellow of the Royal Society, and in 1909 he was created K.C.I.E.


SCHMOLLER, GUSTAV (1838-1917), German political economist (see 24.344), died in 1917.


SCHOLL, AURELIEN (1833-1902), French author (see 24.356), died in Paris April 16 1902.


SCHONAICH, FRANZ, FREIHERR VON (1843-1916), Austro- Hungarian general of infantry and Minister of War, was born at Vienna in 1843, and entered the army as a lieutenant in 1861. He spent the greater part of his service on the general staff and on special employments, especially as a chief of sections in the War Ministry. For a short time in command of the IX. Corps he became head of the Austrian Imperial Ministry of Defence, after which he took over the charge of the Imperial War Minis- try. Schonaich had an attractive personality, was a practised orator, and well-informed in political matters. Therefore he knew how to maintain good relations with the parliamentary parties, to whom his capacity as an organizer, in the crisis of the winter of 1908-9 (the annexation of Bosnia and Herzego- vina), was of great advantage. He was less successful in con- nexion with the Defence Act of 1911, the financial basis of which he was only able to arrange with important restrictions and serious limitations. In this matter he came into conflict with other influential personages, a circumstance which led to his retirement in the autumn of 1911. During the World War he was in supreme command of the War Provisioning Department, and died at that post in the spring of 1916.


SCHOULER, JAMES (1839- ), American lawyer and historian (see 24.377), published in 1913 a seventh volume of his History of the United Slates of- America Under the Constitution, covering the period of reconstruction (1865-71). The original plan of his work had been enlarged by the publication in 1899 of a sixth volume, covering the period 1861-5.


SCHREINER, OLIVE (c. 1862-1920), pen-name of Mrs. Cronwright Schreiner, was born in Basutoland, the daughter of a German missionary sent out by the London missionary