WESTERN COMMANDERS TO DISCUSS GRAVE NEW SITUATION

Grey River Argus, 8 September 1948, Page 5

WESTERN COMMANDERS TO DISCUSS GRAVE NEW SITUATION

(Received September 7, 11.50 p.m.) BERLIN, September 7. Three Commanders of the Western Sectors of Berlin will meet to-day (Tuesday) to discuss City Hall incidents. The French Commandant, MajorGeneral Geneval, said that he considered that the situation is “grave.” Berlin Council Meets In British Sector (Received September 7, 10.40 p.m.) • LONDON. September 7. The Berlin City Council, without any Socialist Unity (pro-Communist) Party representatives, resumed, in the Technical University in the British sector of Berlin, its meeting, which had been earlier interrupted at the City Hall in the Soviet sector’ of the city. The City Council' resumed with fifty Western Sector police stationed inconspicuously behind the building, says Reuter’s correspondent at Berlin. The meeting appealed to all of the four Occupation Powers to give the city authorities the full responsibility of running the city. The meeting unanimously condemned the Communist interference with the City Assembly. The Council approved of a winter emergency programme, which the city administration had drawn up. The Council postponed until November 14, the municipal elections which were due on October 24. The Communists have been trying to prevent these elections. The chairman, Herr Otto Suhr, said that the Council would not return to the Soviet Sector until the Soviet Sector police were able to guarantee it adequate security from interference.

The Earlier Invasion Of City Hall LONDON, September 6. The demonstrators who stormed the Berlin City Hall to-day in the Soviet sector, began to assemble an hotir before the City Assembly was due to meet. Speakers climbed lorries and urged the demonstrators, who carrying Red flags and banners, not to allow themselves to be prevented from entering the hall. When the crowd eventually rushed the building, they swept aside 20 German police who had formed a human chain across the main entranc© Once inside, the demonstrators trampled across the city hallway, strewn with broken glass from the panels of smashed doors, i They stormed upstairs to the main conference room. Many intruders clashed with the civilian guards in the lobbies. Meanwhile hundreds more broke down the back door of the hall and swarmed into the building. One group surrounded a newspaper correspondent and' tore from the wall the telephone he was using. Others manhandled a press photographer and smashed his camera. The demonstrators dragged three other correspondents down the stairs. One broke away and Soviet sector police took the others into protective custody until an American liaison officer obtained their release. The only people arrested during the demonstration were three municipal orderlies. Russian liaison officers, sitting on the balconies, watched impassively as the crowds invaded the premises. YOUTHS AT WORK

Fifty vouths with a battering ram at one stage tried to enter the City Hall’s inner doors, but civilian guards, assisted bv squads of city employees, drove them off. Other demonstrators were beaten off as they tried to enter the windows. The demonstrators had obviously been rounded up from factories as was the case in the three previ-

mic attacks on the City Government. A spokesman for the crowd the City Assembly to discuss immediately the Communist-sponsored winter-help programme. He said if the City Assembly approved the plan the demonstrators would disperse. The mob eventually quietened down and left the area of the hall. Russian liaison officers then ordered the Acting-Mayor, Mr. Friedensburg, to go to the Russian Kommandatura to hear a formal protest against the administration using guards enlisted from city employees to protect the City Assembly.. I The American commandant in Berlin, Colonel Howley, commenting on I the demonstration, said the. Soviet 'commandant was not doing his duty.