STREET BLOODSHED

Evening Post, Volume XCIX, Issue 69, 22 March 1920, Page 7

STREET BLOODSHED

HISTORIC MARCH FROM BERLIN

MOB'S BATTLE WITH ARMY.

(Received March 22, 9 a.m.) "LONDON, 19th March, This morning's telegrams from 'Berlin compare the city to a barrel of gunpowder, while the whole of Germany, except the Southern States, is in a rebellions condition. The departure of the Iron Division and the Naval Brigade yesterday was attended by further bloodshed. The soldiers marched through the Brandenburg Rate with -drums beating and Prussian flags flying, the men carrying, loaded rifles, with their fingers' on the triggers. They could not« have- behaved more provocatively. In spite of the rain, crowds, mainly composed of workmen, gatHered, and jeered at the troops.

'Elegantly-dressed' women at the Adlon Hotel waved farewell to. the soldiers. The crowd suddenly broke, whereupon, the troops fired, mostly in the air. Four people were killed and ten wounded. When' the next detachment passed, the crowd rushed them, and a desperate encounter ensued, and soldiers turned their weapons on their own comrades in the chaos. The casualties were considerable.

The Daily Chronicle's Berlin correspondent says the spectators breathlessly watched the battle from the windows of the Adlon Hotel. For a few ; moments it appeared as if a terrible massacre was likely, as the soldiers ran hither and thither, firing their rifles and throwing hand-grenades, while the machine-guns chattei'ed. Later the troops emerged from shelters, reformed their ranks in deathly silence, and resumed, the historic march, which marked the end of Junkerdom.

A bomb exploded outside .the British Embassy while the Naval "Division was passing, and several people in the street were killed and injured. The Embassy was undamaged.