BERLIN’S BLACK NIGHT

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 654, 4 May 1929, Page 9

BERLIN’S BLACK NIGHT

Reds’ Grim Battle with Police

THREE HUNDRED CASUALTIES Armoured Cars Crash Through (United I*.A.—By Telegraph — Copyright) (Australian and N.Z. Press Association) Received 9.25 a.m. BERLIN, Friday. DETAILS of the barricade fighting between the Communists and the police show that it was more serious than was earlier reported. The casualties number 300. Armoured cars advanced against the barricades on the Hermannstrasse, which was blocked for a mile with felled trees.

When the police stormed the stronghold, the prospects of the conflict were so serious that it was decided to postpone the attack till daybreak, for heavy bloodshed was foreseen. In the Neukoelln quarter there was renewed rioting and looting of shops. The district has the appearance of a battlefield.

The streets are bespattered with blood, suggesting the rioters suffered heavier losses than they admit. Rioting is reported in the harbour district of Hamburg, where drastic measures which might be applied to a conquered town in war time have been proclaimed.

In the Wedding and Neukoelln dis» tricts nobody is allowed in the streets between 9 p.m. and 4 a.m., except doctors and nurses.

Even in the daytime nobody is allowed to stand in doorways, and groups of three are forbidden. Cafes and beer houses are closed at 9 p.m. The police state that this is necessary to show the Communists that they mean business. They will ruthlessly suppress further efforts to cause trouble.

Intermittent fighting continues about Communist haunts. Demonstrators stoned the police from the windows. The police fired a machine-gun and two women were killed. Most of the inhabitants took refuge in the cellars. The Berlin correspondent of “The Times” says Communist crowds collected at various points all day long. There was occasional revolver firing, but nothing serious happened until 10 p.m., when an armoured car bristling with machine-guns, followed by three lorries filled with armed police, crashed through the Communist barricades in Hermannstrasse, in the southeastern quarter of Berlin. The police were ordered to shoot without warning persons seen opening windows. Meanwhile snipers hidden in the rooftops continued firing on the police parties. The number of injured is steadily increasing. The police casualties are surprisingly small. A Communist call for a general strike met with small success. Only about 5,000 men came out. The Berlin Communist newspaper has been suppressed.