BERLIN RAILWAY RIOTS CONTINUE

Press, Volume LXXXV, Issue 25811, 24 May 1949, Page 5

BERLIN RAILWAY RIOTS CONTINUE

Western Commandants To

Confer

U.S. REPRESENTATIVE FINDS SITUATION INTOLERABLE

(N.Z. Press Association—Copyright) (Rec. 8.30 p.m.) LONDON, May 23. The British, United States, and French military commandants of Berlin will meet to-day to consider the railway riots, according to a statement by the Deputy Mayor of Berlin (Dr. Ferdinand Friedensburg). The American Commandant (Brigadier-General Frank Howley), who is chairman this month of the Kommandatura, said that the situation had become intolerable. “It is no longer a matter between the Soviet-controlled railway management and the workers, he said. “The management has used armed police as strike-breakers.”

A thousand sympathisers gathered just after midnight to watch railway strikers hurling rocks at Soviet-sector police, some of whom had barricaded themselves inside the zoo station. The mob jeered at the police and encouraged.the strikers. One hundred strikers broke the police lines and tried to burst open a door into the station. Communist police fired over their 'heads, and they had to withdraw.

Because of the strike the Soviet authorities in Berlin have had to start a shuttle service of military lorries between their {headquarters at Karlshorst and Potsdam, where the Russian headquarters for the Brandenburg Province are located.

The head of the strikers* union, Mr Christian Hanebuth, B to-day that his men would resist the Communist strikekers until their demands were met. “We cannot fight out guns, but will resist every move they make,’Lhe said.

Mr Ernst Scharnowski, leader of the anti-Communist Independent Trade Unions, described yesterday’s events as “an (attempt by the Communists to start a civil war.” He added: Mf these acts of violence continue the Communists may get an answer they do not expect. If necessary, the trade unions [will call a general strike throughout Berlin, including the Soviet feeder.”

[announcements of casualties

' Western Berlin’s police headquarters [announced that during yesterday’s [clashes 12 strikers and other citizens lhad been wounded by shots. Brenty-eight railway police have injured in fighting with the ers since the strike began, accordto the Soviet-controlled railway quarters. Soviet-controlled police fired shots many times yesterday when they met resistance while trying to take charge of railway stations in the Western half of the city. A crowd of several hundred Germans outside the Berlin Zoo station stoned 40 Russian officers yesterday. Western-sector police quickly intervened. Five thousand abusive strikers and sympathisers surrounded Berlin’s big Charlottenburg station and charged Eastern-sector police. Although one oi< tha strikers was shot in the hand, the strikers linked arms and drove 150 railway police out of the station. When Western-sector police arrived on the scene 15 Eastern-sector police voluntarily surrendered their arms, saying: “We do not want to shcot Germans.” After restoring order, the Western polipe handed the station back to the Eastern-sector authorities, who, under the four-Power agreement, are in sole ciferge of Charlottenburg. After a further clash between strikers and railway police, however, British-controlled German police marched into Charlottenburg, occupied it. and remained in control. Strikers and railway police reassembled at a distance on both sides. The Wes tern-sector police who took over the Charlottenburg station have orders to use their pistols if Commun- i ists open fire on the station again.

Four hundred strikers who attacked a transformer installation near the Westkreuz station, in the British sector, were repulsea by fire from police barricaded inside the building. A force of 50 Eastern-sector police, who were attempting to clear the railway lines from the ; Russian-sector border to the Westkreuz station, seven stations away, was surrounded by about 1000 strikers. After the crowd had hurled stones the police opened fire and scattered the mob.

NEW DEMANDS MADE BY STRIKERS

The leaders of the striking railway workers met last night and decided not to call for a general strike in Western Berlin. After a four-hour meeting they passed a three-point resolution. This demanded the withdrawal of Russian-sector railway from Western Berlin, the transfer of railway protection in Western Berlin from Russian-sector railway police to the Western employees, and action by the competent authorises to require the railway manageiment to collect fares in Western Berlin in West marks so that the striking workers can be paid in West marks. The Soviet-controlled railway headquarters made it plain yesterday that ; when the trouble was settled the strikers would be dealt with one at a Jtime. It was announced that those V'ho failed to report yesterday must apply for new registration. In this way the management can pick those it Wants to take back. The situation in Berlin last night, on the eve of the opening of the Council «f Foreign Ministers in Paris, was Tull of ugly possibilities. Western-sector police have been able to restore order after each incident, but there is a growing danger that as tempers rise the police will lose control. . It became clear last night that big :gangs of youths, and not strikers, were ‘? l u ing most of the disturbances. •Police guards were increased at the principal stations at nightfall. By unspoken consent all the occupying Powers are refraining from open‘ly interfering in the strike, although £-ussian officers in an effort to get the •railway system working, are appearing ■t points on the railway in the Western sectors.

British and American military police are standing by day and night ready to intervene if the situation get 4 fully qut of control of the German police. “The railway riots in Berlin expose the abnormal and explosive characteu of present conditions in the city,” says the Berlin correspondent of “The Times.” “The Soviet-controlled railway management has the right to send its own police anywhere on railway property and the railway police are doing their duty against their fellow Germans without much taste for it. The situation has been worsened by the railway directorate bringing the 'people’s police’ from the Russian zone. This body is a schooled and -disciplined Communist instrument, at least partly recruited from members of General von Paulus’s army which surrendered at Stalingrad. “There is no question where Berliners’ sympathies lie. They have accepted good humouredly the inconveniences caused by the railway disruption and are using emergency lorry services.” The Berlin correspondent O of the “Daily Hetald” says that the railway workers in the Western zones have a strong case in demanding payment of wages in West marks. TTie railway administration has continued to pay its workers in East marks, which are a quarter of the value of the West mark, with the result that life has become impossible for railway workers He adds that the strikers are better off financially than if they were working. They receive unemployment pay in West marks which is higher than their wages in East marks.