Page:Statesman's Year-Book 1921.djvu/1241

 DEFENCE — PRODUCTION AND INDUSTRY

1189

The deficit in the ordinary budget of 1921 is expected to equal 7,500,000,000 marks, and in the extraordinary budget 53,111,000,000 marks, making a total of 60,611,000,000 marks.

The national debt at present consists of : Debt to the Polish Loan Bank 50,000,000,000 marks, reconstruction loans 6,700,000,000 marks, and premium loan 700,000,000 marks, making a total of 57,400.000,000 marks.

Iiesides this, in 1920. Poland contracted a debt of 17,000,000 dollars on the United States markets and received goods on foreign credit to the amount of, more or less, 3,000,000.000 French francs. These foreign debts, reckoned in Polish marks, come to upwards of 100,000,000,000.

Defence.

The Polish army is at present on war-footing, although demobilisation is in progress (March, 19211. Every able-bodied Polish subject is liable to serve in the army. The organisation of the army will, after the conclusion of peace, be based on conscription and universal service, and its size will be dependent on the future frontiers of Poland. The Polish army has at present French, German, Austrian and Italian arms. Actually there are about 14,000 officers and 700,000 men of all arms in the field.

The country is divided into 9 General Military Districts : "Warsaw, Lublin, Kielce, Lodz. Cracow, Lemberg, Posen, Grodno, Pomorze.

There are the following fortresses in Poland : iu the west, Thorn and Posen ; in the south, Cracow and Przemysl and armed camps ; in the east, Brest Litowsk, Grodno, Osowiec ; in the interior, Warsaw, Mo llin, Deblin.

A small British mission has been advising the Polish Government on dock organisation, maritime traffic, mine -sweeping, fishery protection, ic. Poland hopes to have a small force of cruisers on the Vistula. She has received six ex-German torpedo-boats for police purposes.

Production and Industry.

AijrieuHure. — Poland is essentially an agricultural country. The division of the territory of Poland, according to the principal forms of cultivation, was as follows : —

District

Kingdom of Poland

(1909) . Galicia (1912).

Posen (1913i

West Prussia (1913)

Rejrencv of Olsztjn

(1913) . Duchv of Teschen

(1897).

Percentage of the Total Area of the Conntry

Total A

in Hectares i Arable Land

12,284,788 7,849,252

2.S39.300

1,508,000

2-2*, noo

Meadows

and Pastures

56 3 435

63-7 5«1

50-5 47-4


 * >)9

10-4 11-6

156 16-2

Foists

180

25-7

19-9

21-6 13-1

Gardens,

Parks,

etc.

3 9 1-4

Unculti- vated or not de- scribed

«0 9 4

About 85 per cent, of the total area of Poland is productive. Of the pro- ductive area, about 25 per cent, is forest, and of the remainder, less than one half is arable and the rest pasture and meadows. By a law of July, 1919, all the forests became the property ol the State.