REVOLT POSSIBLE IN BERLIN

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXII, Issue 21633, 9 February 1945, Page 3

REVOLT POSSIBLE IN BERLIN

STRIKES AND FOOD CLASHES WITH NAZIS WEST OFFENSIVE MAY BRING COLLAPSE (Speeia l CoiTespondent.) (11 a.m.) * LONDON, Feb. 8. Though reports of internal dissension in Germany are being treated with reserve lest they create false optimism, increasing attention is being paid to the worsening state of affairs within the Reich itself, apart from events on the Eastern and Western Fronts. All the reports reaching London indicate that the civil administration is breaking down and some declare that it is on the point of collapse. The position is most acute in the bigger towns and cities, while the recent daylight bombings of Berlin are believed to have destroyed the last remnants of civil order in the city. The streams of refugees pouring into Berlin from the East had already strained the civil administration but the bombings were the last straw. The comment that anything may happen in the next few weeks has now become general. Taxes are not being collected, food ration cards are not being honoured, but what is regarded as even more significant evidence of a break-down is that German marks are no longer being printed on watermarked, paper, which is the only protection against forgery and inflation. Warrants are said to be no longer issued for arrests and while minor offences are being overlooked, the Gestapo deals personally with those who have committed major offences. With few exceptions the courts are not sitting. Civilians and Nazis Clash k "

The Daily Mail’s correspondent in Zurich says that so fur civil disorders have been more marked in the West than the East, taking the form of differences between civilians and the Nazi Party, of strikes and food clashes. Where rationing has broken down the people are taking what they need while clashes have occurred through townspeople trying to take food from farmers. Disorders also have followed the arrival in some places of masses of fugitives, .some from bombing, some deserters and others escaped political prisoners who are roaming the countryside in search of food and shelter. The correspondent’s informant said the Nazi Party had been much weakened by' members going into hiding, and expressed the opinion that the Wehrmacht can no longer rely on civilians and that a bnakthrough in the West might result in complete collapse. A report from the Daily Herald correspondent in Stockholm declares that in Berlin itself a revolt is becoming an imminent possibility and that if Berlin rebels the rest of the country will rapidly follow suit.. The correspondent says that there are 5,000,000 in Berlin now—half ol whom are refugees from the East. It would therefore be impossible to turn Beylin into a fortress since these people would rather fight the S.S. than continue tb**'? flight. a:ong the roads. Yet the military authorities seem determined to make Berlin a second Warsaw. Nazi Chiefs in Bavaria

General Remer, who saved Hitler last July by preventing the rebel Germans from taking charge of tire Ministries, has been given charge of Berlin’s defences and all the German forces between Frankfurt, and Kustrin. Apparently apart from Dr. Goebbels, who is still in Berlin, manyother leading Nazis, it is believed, have gathered around Hitler in Bavaria. Indicating the rising temper of the people, the correspondent reports a hunger demonstration in Steglitz, a Berlin dormitory suburb, where women knocked a policeman senseless when he told them that there would be no vegetables that day' and ordered them to disperse. Then they marched to see the mayor, who made many promises and persuaded them tc disperse. The News Chronicle, in a leader on “Germany’s fateful hour,” declares: “The war is moving to its climax with ever-moun.ting speed. We may reasonably hope that before the trees are in leaf again (April) the 'Third ueich will be a thing of the past. ’ The paper comments on the importance of the “Big Three’s” meeting. The apprehension and uneasiness that the Germans are showing at this meeting is regarded as indicating that they realise they are faced with surrender or. collapse. It is felt here that the coming weeks may be fuil of incident and that “anything may happen.”