BERLIN REDS SET UP OWN COUNCIL: EAST-WEST DIVISION

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 22808, 1 December 1948, Page 7

BERLIN REDS SET UP OWN COUNCIL: EAST-WEST DIVISION

(N.Z.P.A.—Reuter— Copyrlcht.) (I! a.m.) LONDON, Nov. 30. The Russian-backed Berlin Communists today established a separate' city administration in opposition to the democratically elected anti-Communist city government. They thus virtually completed the political division of Berlin between east and west.

The deputy chairman of the Berlin Assembly, the Communist, Ilerr Ottoman Geschke. told a special meeting of the assembly held in the -Soviet sector and which the pro-Western parties boycotted, that the Communist “democratic” bloc demanded the dismissal of the present administration.

The bloc also demanded the formation of a provisional administration prior to the general elections. The bloc had passed a resolution stating that the present administration had “failed to fulfil its obligations by disregarding the vital interests of the city.” The meeting adopted the bloc resolution and unanimously elected Herr Fritz Ebert, a member of the Socialist Unity Party, as provisional Lord Mayor of Berlin. Herr Ebert told the meeting that with the election of a new magistrate the elections due to take place on December 5 in the Western sectors of the city had become completely senseless. He was applauded when he said that the new magistrate was responsible for the whole of Berlin, regardless of the sectors.

He added: “We intend to break down the sector barriers and ensure the proper administration of the entire city.” The Communists in Berlin, meanwhile, held large-scale demonstrations against the municipal elections which are due to be held on December 5 and which the Russians have banned in their sector. Communist Demonstration

This afternoon over 10,000 workers gathered for a demonstration —the biggest Communist demonstration yet staged in Berlin—-carrying Communist placards and banners, some of which were marked “Marshall Plan Means War.”

They were herded into the Unter Der Linden by Russian-sector German police. All shops and offices in the Soviet sector closed at midday and the Sovietcontrolled Berlin radio interrupted its programme every 10 minutes to urge Berliners to go out on the streets to join the demonstration against the city administration.

Reserves of police were mobilised to stop demonstrations in the Western sectors and the police chief ordered radio cars to operate along the East-West borders to prevent incidents. Use of Force Not Planned

Herr Hans Jendretzky, the recentlyelected Berlin chairman of the Socialist Unity Party, denied that the party had armed forces ready to take over Berlin and added: “We shall capture the city but without the use of arms.” He maintained that thousands of Berliners were waiting to hear the word that they had a new Government—a temporary magistrate to end the chaos which grips the city. Colonel Frank L. Howley, the American commandant in Berlin, described the setting up of a separate city administration for the Russian sector as an “arrogant action completely devoid of legality and a flagrant violation of the existing constitution of Berlin and all quadripartite agreements pertaining to the city.”