LIVELY SCENES

Hokitika Guardian, 26 May 1932, Page 6

LIVELY SCENES

COMMUNISTS V. NAZIS IN DIET.

MUCH DAMAGE, MANY INJURED

(United Press Association—By Electric

Telegraph.—Copyright.)

(Received this due o T ’ BERLIN, May 25,

■a Broken chairs, shattered inkpots, water bottles and glasses, and electric lamps littered the floor of the Prussian Diet, while the • walls and benches were bespattered with blood and ink after a battle between 160 Nazis and 54 Communists.

The trouble arose when a Communist shouted “there are murderers in their ranks.”

The Nazis rose en masse and charged their adversaries, using fists, swinging chairs, and hurling bottles. Their weight of numbers drove the Communists into the lobbies, the victorious Nazis pursuing them to the door. Four Deputies were seriously injured, and there were many minor casualties. A Social Democrat, who tried to restore order after the other parties had withdrawn, disgusted, from the scene, had his jaw broken and was l'emoved, unconscious. A lone Communist later returned to the chamber, his head swathed in a blood-stained bandage, vowing ':' ven- v •geance... - - Three ambulances.. were needed, to transport the wounded Communists to the hospital. When the last had departed, the Nazis, man’v of whose suits wejre ruined, and with *i,oises still bleeding, returned to their seats and sang a triumphant war song. The revelation of bitter feeling between the Nazis and Communists dashes the hopes of an immediate * peaceful -settiemeiiyt of the politicaljiiiisis. Thle Communists’ aggressive tactics and hatred of the Nazis renderthe attempt by the parliamentary government of Prussia impossible. The Diet' executive decided to adjourn for a week. A Nazi, Doctor Kerri, was elected President of the Diet.

OUTBURST BY COMMUNISTS,

AGAINST GERMAN FASCISTS

LONDON, May 25.

“The Times’.s” Berlin correspondent states : - Apart from Communism interruptions the new Prussian Diet’s first meeting passed without incident. There were 102 Nazi members, mostlywithout previous Parliamentary experience. They walked in a body, headed by Herr Karl Litzmann, an octogenarian war hero, wearing a frock coat, on which was pinned t-lie Iron Cross and other decorations.

As the eldest member of the Diet, Herr Litzinann provisionally took' the chair, tlle^aziA’then jumping to the if feet and ; grfing the Fascist -salute, an<l thereby causing a Communist outburst of shouts, as “‘Down with the Imperial Generals!”- “Down with tlie Fascists !’ ’

The sitting was purely a formal one, and it was adjourned till to-day for the election of the President of Vice--President?. : f