STRIKE RIOTS IN BERLIN

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 113, 5 February 1918, Page 5

STRIKE RIOTS IN BERLIN

TROUBLE IN THE MOABITE QUARTER MILITARY PUNISHMENT THREATENED By Tcleeraph-Press AesociaUon-Copjri'ht Amsterdam, February 3. Tlie Berlin newspapers show that, thousands of men and women from the Moabite quarter surged in the streots, overturning the trams and erecting barricades. They broke the police cordon, and the police fired, wounding thirteen severely and many others slightly. Similar demonstrations and encounters occurred in other working-class suburbs. The military commander has ordered the workers to rosume work on Monday, or military punishment will he inflicted.—Aus.-N.Z. Cable Assn. A SUPPRESSED PAMPHLET WHY THE WORKERS REBELLED. Copenhagen, February 3. lA.' smuggled copy of a suppressed pamphlet signed by tlie leaders of tho German Independent Socialists shows that they instigated the strikes because the Government's collusion with the pan-Germans was endangering the peace negotiations with Russia, and because tho Government had closed the Reichstag, the only place where the dangerous annexation policy could bo attacked. ( The pamphlet proceeds: "Our Press is gagged; our comrades are imprisoned. Working-class men Mid women, you have no time to lose. A. new and frightful disaster threatens us, in spite of the sufferings and sorrows wo have ialready endured. Only a peace without annexations or indemnities can save us. The time has coine for you to raise your voices for such a peace. Tho German people, by powerful demonstrations) must manifest their determination to end the war." The arrest of Herr Dittman, a member of the Reichstag and one of the signatories of tho pamphlet, has profoundly irritated the Socialists, and a national demonstration of protest is being arranged—Aus.-N.Z. Cable Assn. CONFLICTING STATEMENTS BERLIN'S ASSERTION THAT STRIKES ARE SUBSIDING NOT SUSTAINED. London, February 3. Messages from Berlin State that the strikes are subsiding, that the men are resuming work at Hamburg, Danzig, and Kiel, that only minor disturbances were Teported on Friday, and that street traffic in Berlin is uninterrupted. . On the other hand, telegrams from The Hague assert that the situation in Berlin is unchanged. A large number of Independent Socialist leaders were arrested at the same time as Heir Dittman. Working people in Cologne, Dnsseldorf, and Golsenkirk, and the coalminers at Dortmund and Bocnum have joined the strikers.—Aus.-N.Z. Cable Assn. A CHARACTERISTIC LIBEL STRIKE INTRIGUE ATTRIBUTED TO THE ALLIES. London, February 3. The Cologne newspapers publish details of an alleged Anglo-American plot. A committee was, it is alleged, formed at Washington with a fund of two hundred and fifty million marks (about £12,000,000), under Senator Stone, Lord Northcliffe, and Lord Reading, to organise a revolution in Germany, Austria, Turkey, and Bulgaria, by establishing branches in neutral countries and sending neutrals to Germany to incite munition workers to strikes and sabotage.—Aus.-N.Z. Cable Assn. MAJORITY SOCIALISTS TAKE A STAND (Ren. February 4, 7.40 p.m.) Copenhagen, February 3. The Majority Socialists in the Reichstag refuse to negotiate with the Government unless the workers' representatives participate in the conference. The military commander at Brandenburg has announced that workers failing to resume on Monday will be court-martialled, and the courts will be authorised to impose the death sentence, which will'be carried out within 24 hours. There was renewed rioting in the Berlin suburbs on Saturday.—Aus.N.Z. Cable Assn.