COMMUNISTS PROTEST

Press, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 25081, 13 January 1947, Page 7

COMMUNISTS PROTEST

Conditions In Hamburg coal "trains LOOTED (N.Z. Press Association—Copyright) (Rec. 8.30 n.m.) LONDON, January 11. The Germans could not be held down; even with rifles, said Hamburg’s Coriimunist leader, Mr Harry Naujocks, addressing a rally of 2000 party members and supporters, gathered in the Hamburg Town Hall to protest against conditions in Hamburg. The meeting shouted and cheered as speaker after speaker condemned the British administration, the British Government, the German administration, and everybody else they could think of, says the correspondent of the British United Press in Hamburg. Mr Nau jocks described as a lie the claim by Mr J. B. Hynd, the Minister in Charge of the British zone of Germany, that the German crisis had The Communist rally followed the arrest within 24 hours of a number of Germans for stealing coal. The British United Press correspondent in Berlin says German police killed one person when they fired to disperse 200 Germans looting coal from a goods train at Bonn last night. The German police fired over the heads of 300 coal train looters at Grevenbrotch, near Cologne, after the crowd had pelted with lumps of coal civilians who had attempted "to disperse the looters, says Reuter’s correspondent. The German Coal Board for the British and American zones has announced a scheme to encourage miners to Sroduce more coal. The miners on the a sis of their production, efficiency, and continued attendance at the pits, will be awarded points which they can use as permit's to buy “luxuries” such as bacon, real coffee, sugar, and clothing at controlled prices.

The Moscow weekly journal, “New Times,” alleges that Britain is trying to preserve the military and economic potential in the British zone of Germany, says Reuter’s correspondent The “New Times” says this ruinous policy has caused the zone’s unhappy economic and agricultural situation. It adds that British businessmen are flowing steadily to Germany to capture the Ruhr economy, though the Americans intend to get a share. The British-American zonal agreement proclaimed Germany’s economic break-up.

FRENCH MOVE MACHINERY GERMAN FACTORY EQUIPMENT

TRANSFER TO ALSACE AND THE SAAR

(Rec. 7 p.m.) LONDON, Jan. 10. It is reported that the French are moving millions of marks worth of German factory equipment from the French zone of Germany to Alsace and the Saar, says Reuter’s correspondent in Stuttgart. An American Military Government source said that the French were continuing to remove machinery from at least five large factories not listed for reparations, in spite of American protests against the removal of the Robert Bosch factory at Tubingen to the Saar. The five factories were a Mauser pistol factory producing small machines, at Oberndorg; the Himmel works, producing industrial motors at Tubingen; the Junghaus watchmaking works near Stuttgart; the Weissewerke, near Friburg, on the Rhine: and the Heinemann works, producing lathes. DAKOTA CRASHES IN KENT Aircraft Runs Out Of Petrol FIVE KILLED (Rec. 11 p.m.) LONDON, Jan. 11. Three passengers and two members Qi the crew were killed when a British Overseas Airways Corporation Dakota crashed late this afternoon on the hillside near Ashford, Kent. The aircraft carried 11 passengers and five crew members. All of the survivors were admitted to hospital. The Dakota left London airport at 9.30 a.m. for Lagos. The first scheduled stop was Bordeaux. Because of bad weather, Bordeaux and Le Bourget in turn diverted the aeroplane. The pilot then decided to return to England. Fog covered the Channel. At 4.4 p.m. the aeroplane sent out an. SOS reporting it had only five minutes’ petrol left. The air sea rescue system had begun to operate when the news came that the Dakota had crashed in Kent. The first news of the crash was conveyed by one of the • passengers, who came running out of the mist to where a farmer sat milking a cow and gasped that the aeroplane had crashed up the hill, and passengers were trapped inside. Reuter’s says that there was an eerie scene on the Kentish hillside as rescue work began by lantern light in intermittent rain and mist. Ambulances came from three towns and cars brought nurses from Folkestone Hospital. Doctors hurried from widespread districts. Hours went by before all of the dead and injured were removed. The aircraft smashed through trees, and piled up in some bushes and split itself open. A small fire' appeared in the wreckage during the rescue but the pilot said that there was no danger as there was no petrol left. It was a hazardous ordeal getting the injured down a muddy hilside.

The injured . included Mr T. L. Horabin, M.P.. bound for Lagos on business, who suffered a factured leg, a slight head injury and a burnedhand.