POLITICAL MURDER

Dominion, Volume 24, Issue 147, 18 March 1931, Page 9

POLITICAL MURDER

Speedy Surrender ofWanted Men CALLOUS BUS CRIME By Telegraph—Press Assn.—Copyright. Berlin, March 16. A resident of Hamburg named Jansen and a clerk named Barmel have surrendered themselves for the shooting of Henning, the Communist councillor, who was murdered while travelling home in a late, crowded bus. Jansen was expelled from the Police Force last year, owing to his Nationalist activities. Both surrendered In accordance with the orders of the Nazi leaders. The third man, hailing from Munich, named Hoechmeyer, was arrested. All have been charged with murder. The men declare that they mistook Henning for the Communist leader Adre, and shot him in a fit of rage. Passengers who were in the bus deny this, asserting that the affair was obviously prearranged. Communists declare that the outrage was deliberately planned. Six Nazis, one in uniform, boarded a bus and fired fifteen shots. Four women and a child were wounded, besides Henning’s companion, who saved his life by shamming death.

The murderers stopped the vehicle, got out, cut the telephone wires, and decamped, leaving the injured by the roadside.

Communists avenging the murder this morning shot and wounded Nazis leaving a beer hall. The authorities, to prevent rioting, suspended the meetings and newspapers of both parties. Popular indignation is roused to a fever heat. Hitler has expelled the murderers from the party, but defrays their legal defence costs, on the ground that Communist propaganda infuriated them. The Socialists have moved in the Reichstag for tightening up legislation against political murders.