COMMUNISTS LEAD FRESH DEMONSTRATION IN SOVIET SECTOR OF BERLIN

Grey River Argus, 30 August 1948, Page 5

COMMUNISTS LEAD FRESH DEMONSTRATION IN SOVIET SECTOR OF BERLIN

CITY COUNCIL AGAIN UNABLE TO HOLD MEETING (Received August 29, at 9.40 p.m.) ' LONDON, August 29. There was a further Communist demonstration in Berlin on Friday. The demonstrators broke into the City Hall. The City Assembly had just begun its meeting when the chairman announced there were crowds outside, and the meeting was broken off. What is going on now in the Eastern Sector of Berlin is “good standard dictatorial technique,” says the Yorkshire “Post’J in a leading article. “The'rowdyism being engineered has the same origin as the pogroms which Dr. Goefbbels arranged. These outrages were carefujly led, and are stimulated by ruffians who are specialists in this kind of violence.

Friday’s demonstration followed a strike meeting in the Central Labour Office in the Soviet sector. The strikers, who were protesting about partial non-payment of salaries, went to the City Hall, where they formed the nucleus of from 1000 to 2000 demonstrators. ' After they had forced their way into the building, 300 or 400 people went into the meeting chamber itself, just after the meeting had been broken off because of inadequate police protection. The leader of the Communist trade unions addressed the gathering from the rostrum, calling on the workers of Berlin to “toss out the administrators of the city.” The demonstrators then dispersed. German police in the Soviet sector did not lift a finger, yesterday or today, to prevent these disturbances. They could have prevented them had thev wished. The Deputy-Mayor (Ferdinand Friedensburg) claimed that Soviet sector police refused to protect the Berlin Assembly and actually backed the demonstrators. “It is now questionable whether the City Parliament will remain under a situation where the police . refuse protection from a small minority pressure group,” he said. “The elders will meet informally at the home of the president, Dr Suhr, to-night, to discuss the situation arising from the demonstrations.” The Soviet-licensed news agency reported that a meeting in Dr Suhr’s house discussed the transfer of the city administrative headquarters from the Soviet sector and convening a meeting in the basement of the shattered Reichstag in the British sector. Dr Suhr has received a reply to his letter from General Kotikov, but he will not say whether it is a . rejection of his protection demands. _ The Communist-controlled Berlin Co-operative Society organised an anti-black market rally on the Soviet side of Postdamer platz. Eight thousand Germans gathered in the square and when they eventually dispersed iIGQ demonstrators with . banners again marched to the City Hall, where they left when thev found that the administrators were absent. Dr. Otto Schur, president of the Berlin City Assembly, wrote to the Soviet commandant, General Kotikov, demandin" immediate action to -protect the City Council, one would have to meet elsewhere." The letter land down that General Kotikov should issue an immediate order banning all demonstrations in the Soviet sector and the Soviet authorities should approve a motion, which the city authorities passed some time ago banning all demonstrations and public meetings in a wide area around the City Hall. Communist Comment (Rec. 9.10) LONDON, Aug. 28 The Communist newspaper “Daily Worker” said that the demonstrations at the Berlin City Hall were a sign of the times, and a warning that German people were “taking an increasing part in a struggle for democracy. London political quarters, however saw the demonstration as carefully timed to gain control or at least split the city administration before any Four-Power supervision of the currency could be fixed in Moscow. A British Foreign Office spokesman described as “ill-timed and irresponsible” the Communist demonstrations in Berlin. They were only of local significance. It was not thought that thev were likely to influence the Moscow talks.

New Berlin Dispute Over Ukranian Sick Girl RUSSIANS DEMAND CUSTODY INSTEAD OF AMERICANS OPERATING (Rec. 9.5). LONDON, August 28. A fourteen-year-old orphan girl, Helena Korelenko, who js lying in the American sector hospital at Berlin, and is crippled by infantile paralysis, has become the subject or the latest American-Russian dispute, says the Associated Press correspondent at Berlin. The Americans, applied to the Russians for permission to operate, believing that Miss Koielenko, who is a Ukrainian, was a Russian subject. The Russians, how ever, immediately demanded the custody of the girl. They sent an ambulance doctor to collect her. The American Public Safety Of ficials refused to hand over Miss Korelenko to the Russians, without the International Refugee Organisations’ approval. Rprlin Reuter’s correspondent at Berlin says: The Soviet News Bureau accused the Americans of holding MIS» Korelenko “as a hostage for new provocations”, and said that they “are trying to provoke another Kasenkl The Ca Soviet statement said that when a Soviet ambulance arrived at the hospital, following an agreement to hand over Miss Koie lenko, there were photographers, correspondents. and two jeep-loads « military police * waiting outside. A Soviet representative protested at this “cynical attempt to use the, sick girl for anti-Soviet provocation . The Russians said that the girl, as she lay on a stretcher, declared that she wanted to see her home again as soon as possible. The Russians said just as Miss Korelenko was being 'placed in an ambulance, an American officer suddenly said that she could not go. . , The Soviet statement commented. “It is obvious that this comedy was staged by the Americans in the hone that the girl would say in front of correspondents that she did not wan, to go hack to the Soviet Union”.

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WILD RIDE BY RUSSIANS IN U;S. SECTOR OF BERLIN Armed Men in Jeep Defy Americans (Rec. 8.20). LONDON, August 28.. ( Four gun-brandishing Russian ' soldiers, including a lieutenantcolonel, staged a wild ride through the United States sector of Berlin last night, duping which they ran down an American military policeman, who tried to halt them. This is reported by an Associated Press correspondent in Berlin. American military police then chased the Russians for seven miles through busy streets, and, although the American police shot two tyres off the Russians’ amphibious jeep, they could not halt the vehicle. The Russians also crashed through road-blocks which Americans had erected to check them. The Americans pursued the Russians for 800 .yards in the Soviet sector at the Potsdamer Platz. There the Russians escaped, but the Russians have formally protested to the United States authorities against this alleged violation of Russian jurisdiction, and they have claimed that Americans assaulted Soviet personnel, and wounded an officer. American liaison officers reported the incident of the jeep because it was travelling at a' speed of sixty miles an hour, which is double the permitted speed in the United States sector. Americans saw the jeep run down a military policeman, who was on a motor-cycle, when he tried to stop the vehicle. The policeman received a fractured right elbow, lacerations to the arm, and concussion. American police formed roadblocks, with motor-cycles, at crossroads, but the Russians broke through by threatening to shoot. Americans fired at the escaping, vehicle, wounding one occupant. The Americans stopped as soon as they realised that they had crossed into the Soviet sector. BERLIN FOOD FROM - WESTERN GERMANY The Anglo-American bizonal food authorities announced in Frankfurt new long-term plans to improve Berlin’s airborne food supply, calculated to keep the air-bridge going through the winter, if necessary. Forty bizonal dehydration plants, which are at present producing to less than half capacity, will be fully in operation shortly, processing vegetables for Berlin.