BERLIN PROBLEM

Evening Post, Volume CXL, Issue 7, 9 July 1945, Page 6

BERLIN PROBLEM

HUNGER STALKS CITY

MANY WORKERS COLLAPSE <By Telegraph—Press Association —Copyright.) Bee. 1 p.m. LONDON, July 8. ' British officials revealed that before ■the Anglo-American occupation the Hussians stripped 50 per cent, of the material from the factories in the British zone in Berlin, says the correspondent of the "Daily Telegraph" in the capital. v "iThe seriousness of the food situation is indicated by the collapse of many Berliners' from under-nourish-ment while clearing the capital's bomb wreckage," the correspondent says. "In the faces of these drawn Berliners I have seen1 the unmistakable grey pallor of hunger, which is not evident elsewhere in western Germany. The Allied authorities are already saying that the only solution is to thin out the population by evacuating Berlin's inhabitants to the surrounding country. It is'vriot easy for the British soldier to sit- and watch people starving, no matter - what their guilt. The Berliners are!n6t only beaten; they are broken and paralysed by defeat and have be<come nomads, wandering aimlessly in a city of brick-dust. A senior officer said, that unless their situation is improved it will be necessary to relieve the British troops living in this tomb-like-atmosphere every two months." i The correspondent adds that during the ■••past fortnight Berliners have not seen sugar,, jam, butter, margarine, booking oils and fats of any kind, eggs, fchicke,ns, or chocolate. There is no Jnilk except for children aged under 6ne year, who receive a pint, and childfeh:between one and two, who receive & quarter of a pint daily. * The devastated city of Hamburg is irepbrted to be returning gradually to fiormal. In the process hundreds of &erman officials have been sacked. Al-. fhough tremendous progress has been piade in the restoration work, an estifnate has been made that it would,take 20,000 workmen ten years to clear up the damage that has been done to the 6ity. fc French troops have begun to take over their zone of occupation in the Rhine province from the United States 35th Army, says Luxemburg radio. The commander stated that the zone would J)e ; administered with sternness but Svith justice.