FUSION IV BERLIN

Greymouth Evening Star, 23 April 1946, Page 7

FUSION IV BERLIN

Social Democrats and Communists ALLIED RULES FLOUTED (Recd. 11 a.m.) LONDON, April 22. The Congress of Social Democrats and Communists at the Berlin Opera House to-day formally carried a resolution fusing the two parties in the Russian zone and the Russian sector of Berlin, forming a single party, which, in future, will be called the Socialist Unity Reuter’s Berlin correspondent says it is learned that the British military government will to-morrow order seven German Communists and seven Social Democrats of the British zone, who were to-day elected members of the new executive committee of the Socialist Unity Party to resign their positions. The authorities permitted Germans to come from the British zone to attend the meeting, but the British attitude is that the Germans cannot represent the new party in that area, since that party does not exist there and has not even applied loi permission to establish itself officially. It is pointed out that this does not mean that the party will be prohibited indefinitely in the British zone or in the British sector of Berlin, but the existing Allied rules regarding new parties must, tor the present, be respected. . , At the first conference of the new Socialist Unity Party, Mr Pieck, chairman of the Communists, and Mr. Grotewohl, chairman of the Social Democrats, became joint chairmen of the new party, the executive of which is composed of 40 members from each of the old parties.