WEST'S BORDER POLICE

Press, Volume LXXXIX, Issue 27072, 22 June 1953, Page 10

WEST'S BORDER POLICE

MOVE TO DOUBLE SIZE (N.Z. Press Association—Copyright) (Rec. 8 p.m.) BONN, June 19. The West. German Bundestag today voted to double the strength of West Germany’s border police from 10,000 to 20,000 men. The decision, to be effective, must get the agreement of the Western Allies who, so far, have been taown to view increases in West Germany’s police forces with disfavour. During a debate in the Bundestag today, the Minister of the Interior Robert Lehr) said he wanted to form a belt of strong points along the East-West border for the protection of the people living there. Dr. Erich Mende told the Bundestag that the East German Government plans to raise the strength of its police forces from 133,000 men to 200,000 by the end of 1953. Dr. Mende, who is the military affairs expert of the Free Democrats, one of the Government coalition parties, gave the East German police strength at 97,000 ordinary police, 133,000 barracked police, and 25,000 border guards. The barracked police were composed of 120,000 men organised in infantry and motorised formations. 6000 men in the Ist Air Division and 7000 men of the sea police, which, he added, “quite clearly has the character of a navy.” The Air Division was being equipped with Soviet MIG 15 jet fighters. The ground forces were already equipped with about 800 field guns, assault guns, and tanks and were commanded by former Wehrmacht generals.