FAMINE IN BERLIN

Grey River Argus, 14 May 1945, Page 5

FAMINE IN BERLIN

(Rec. 8.40). LONDON, May 13. Berlin is suffering from an acute food shortage. It is due mainly to transport difficulties. The Red Army has established bakeries and food shops for three million citizens who are sheltering in the ruins of the city. There is no water, as the’ waterworks were blown up, by Germans, shortly before the fall of Berlin. ALLIED CONTROL ZONES IN GERMANY. (Rec. 9.15.) WASHINGTON, May 12. The U.S. “Army and Navy Journal’’ reports: The American occupation zone in Germany covers Bavaria, Wurtemburg arid Thuringia, with a supply corridor from the British controlled area through Bremen. France is to control a large part of the Rhineland, with possibly some additions from the zone allotted to America. COLOGNE MAKING MOTOR TRUCKS (Rec. 11.40) LONDON, Mav 13 A report from Allied Headquarters states: German-made lorries for Hie Allies have started rolling off the assembly lines in a repaired factory of battered Cologne. German civilians are turning out two and a half ton trucks for the use of the Allied Military Government and other needs of the occupation forces. The first lorry was completed in a plant which the Ford Motor Company had ' got ready by V-E Day. S.H.A.E.F. authorised the resumption of operations on May 4. The wheels began to turn on May 7. MANY U-BOATS UNCOMPLETED. (Rec. 6.30). LONDON, May 12. Warnings by Allied leaders that Germans in the last months of the war were attempting to intensify U-boat warfare were well founded, says an Exchange Telegraph correspondent from Hamburg. There are hundreds of pre-fabricated sections of submarines along thirty miles of derelict wharves in Hamburg. Their potentialities for adding to the war’s frightfulness were weakened by Allied bombing, and ended when British troops occupied the port. NO RECOGNITION OF DOENITZ (Rec. 6.30) LONDON, May 12 The “Sunday Times’s’’ diplomatic correspondent says: The Allies will not recognise Admiral Doenitz’s Government, which at present appears to consist only of himself and Count Schwerin von Krosigk, nor of any other German central administration which mav be proposed. That disposes of Doenitz’s pretentions, which in any case are impossible of realisation because he is certain for inclusion in the list of major war criminals. 50.000 KILLED. IN RAIDS ON HAMBURG. (Rec. 9.30). LONDON, May 13. It has officially been confirmed from Hamburg’s statistics that twenty thousand persons died, and that sixty thousand people were sent to hospital at the result of a R-.A.F. raid on July 25. 1943, on Hamburg, when incendiaries set fire to the central dock area. The air raids are reported to have caused a quarter of a million casualties, including fifty thousand killed. A British administrative officer said it would be possible to get ■ small cargo ships to Hamburg in the next few weeks. The entry of larger vessels depends on clearance of minefields. “SLAVE” SHIP. (Rec. 12.5.) LONDON, May 13. A Reuter correspondent at Stockholm, stated: “A German “slave” ship, the “Homborg,” arrived at Malmo, carrying 1,379 human wrecks from concentration camps. Conditions on the ship were indescribable. The dirt and smell were so overpowering that medical personnel removing the prisoners, had to work with rubber masks. Prisoners were dressed in paper suits. They were confined to holds and lifeboats since May 4, being for five days without food and drink. The majority were political prisoners from camps around Danzig, including that at Stuttof, wher, according to one Pole, only one hundred survived out of 35,000 prisoners. ISLANDS FOR GREECE. (Rec. 11.40.) LONDON, May 13. Archbishop Damaskinos immediately after the liberation of Greece cabled Mr. Churchill asking for the immediate restoration of the Dodecanese Islands to Greece. To this Mr. Churchill agreed, says an Exchange Telegraph correspondent. An Associated Press correspondent at Athens stated: News of the liberation of the Dodecanese and of Regent Damaskinos’s visit to Rhodes caused jubiliation in A.thens, where events are interpretated as the first steps toward the union of Greece. It is officially announced that Greeks have landed on Rhodes, Kos and Leros Islands, and are disarming the Ger-' mans. ' Reuter’s Cyprus correspondent I says: Police yesterday searched the) premises of trade unions and workers’ parties in all towns and many villages. An official communique says: “A quantity of literature suspected of being of a seditious nature was seized and removed for examination.” GOERING PAMPERED ? WASHINGTON, May 11. The House applauded when Representative Flood (Democrat, Pennsylvania) demanded the immediate drumhead court-martial' of Marshal Goering as a war criminal. He said: Goering is still pompous, strutting, and arrogant. This overstuffed buffoon and charlatan demanded and was granted the privilege of a bath and a change into one of his grotesque musical comedy uniforms before he condescended to have his picture taken by his captors. Instead of being wined and dined as a privileged character, he should have been shot on sight like any other mad dog.” The “Washington Post” says: “All this may be in line with military etiquette, but it will leave a stench in the nostrils "of most Americans. It is an insult to our honoured dead and their families. It would not be a bad idea for General Eisenhower to supplement his anti-fraternisation order issued to the troops with an order to high American officers to be a good deal less deferential to Nazi criminals.” A radio commentator, Frank Kingdon, said: “The United States Army’s treatment of Marshal Goering is the most dangerous signal for the future since Munich.”