“We Win Withstand Blockade," Says Berlin Party Chief

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 22697, 23 July 1948, Page 5

“We Win Withstand Blockade," Says Berlin Party Chief

(11 a.m.) LONDON. July 22. The chairman of Berlin’s Social Democrats, Dr. Franz Neuman, told a mass meeting that the Germans knew the difference between western and eastern culture, says the Associated Press correspondent in Berlin. “We stand with western principles and reject any dressed-up versions pretending to be democracy,” he said. He described the blockade of Berlin as a crime similar to those for which only two years ago a dozen men (the Nazi leaders) were hanged at Nuremberg. “Our will is unbreakable,” he added. “We will make no concessions. We will withstand the blockade because we know that if we yield a great cemetery like the silence of Siberia will descend upon us.” The official Russian newspaper in Berlin. Taegliche Rundchau, demanded that the Berlin City Council accept incorporation into the Communist economic plan and endorse only the Soviet-sponsored currency. The official Socialist newspaper, Sozial Demokrat, said the Russian offer \ to supply all Berlin with food was designed only to distract attention from the real plan of the Communists and Russia to install naked dictatorship.