THE ENEMY WITHIN THE GATES

Evening Post, Volume XCI, Issue 55, 6 March 1916, Page 7

THE ENEMY WITHIN THE GATES

SENSATIONAL SPEECH BY DR

LIEBKNECHT

TREACHERY OF GERMAN CAPI-

TALISTS.

(Received March 6, 9 a.m.)

AMSTERDAM. sth March.

Amid frequent interruptions and calls to order. Dr. Liebknecht (the Socialist leader), in a sensational speech in the Diet, denounced the censorship. He declared that the newspapers had been forbidden to announce the impending release of Rosa Luxenburg (a Socialist writer), the authorities fearing popular demonstrations in her favour. The newspapers had also been prohibited mentioning the trials connected with the peace demonstrations and food riots. The result- Avas that the population Avas unaware of the vast increase in such trials. A prominent Lttbeck senator had been imprisoned for placing his Swedish copper mines at Russia's disposal. The treachery of capitalists in soiling munitions to the enemy through neutrals had so increased that the GoArernment had been obliged to issua a, warning. German soldiers had been killed by guns supplied by Krupps.

CRIMINALS IN GERMAN ARMY

Referring to the atrocities in Belgium, Dr. Liebknecht said the German army contained many criminals. Already there were five thousand soldiers in military prisons under Prussian administration, and the prisous under the Ministry for the Interior were largely populated by soldiers. The dearth of" foodstuffs Avas one of the social causes of crime, and one of the results is the degeneration of our whole kultur.

After mentioning the case of a person sentenced to death for writing a poem, the sentence subsequently being commuted to five years' imprisonment, Dr Liebknecht denounced military justice towards civilians. Tho police, he said, had opened a new department in Berlin to deal with peace propagandists.

THE ONLY WAR THE SOCIAL-

IS7S KNOW

He predicted a severer class of Avar, an increase in political precaution and reaction. Hie cry from the prisons and penitentiaries would soon become more audible, and would rouse mankind to the only Holy War which the Socialists

knew

The situation in Austria Avas Avorse than in Germany There the field courtmartial had become a regime of terror. One of his Austrian comrades had been sentenced to death for a speech in December, 1915, on the ground that his remarks Avere hostile to the State.