Sprawa umiędzynarodowienia polskich rzek po pierwszej wojnie światowej

After the First World War victorious countries adopted a rule granting free navigation on all rivers classified as international. This rule applied to such German rivers as the Danube, Elbe, Oder and Neman for which there appointed international river commissions. Poland became a member of International Commission for the Oder as a riverside state. The only commission which finally was not created was the one appointed for the Neman. During the peace conference in Paris there was considered a Czechoslovakian proposal for the internalization of the Vistula. Poland rejected the motion as Poles considered the Vistula a national river. Yet the Little Treaty of Versailles obliged Poland to apply to the Vistula the same regulations as the Treaty of Versailles assumed for German rivers. Furthermore, Poland lost direct control over the Lower Vistula flowing through Gdańsk, which from now on was to be controlled by the Council of the Port and Waterways of the Free City of Danzig. Fear of the internationalisation of the Vistula and of German economic expansion made Poland reject the rule of free navigation on international rivers. Poland did not subject its sections of the Warta and Noteć to the International Commission for the Oder and by doing so it contributed considerably to the dissolution of the Commission. What is more, Poland did not ratify the Barcelona Convention