QUARTER MILLION DEMONSTRATE IN BERLIN

Grey River Argus, 11 September 1948, Page 5

QUARTER MILLION DEMONSTRATE IN BERLIN

Against Communism Some Gun Play Afterwards LONDON, Sept. 9. On Thursday there was a rally against the Communists by two thousand Berlin people in the British sector of the city of the Republic Sauare in front of the ruined Reichstag in the British sector. Following the rally, Russian tommy-gunners fired into the crowd of German civilians, wounding at least five, including a 10-year-pld. The British United Press correspondent in Berlin says that ten Russian tommy-gunners, _ as well as several squads of Russian sector German police, fired a number of volleys at the crowd. The heaviest burst of fire involved, at least 60 shots and same from inside the Russian sector, but a Russian Lieuten-ant-Colonel admitted to British officers that the Russians fired at least three shots while inside the British sector.

Trouble started when a Russian jeep entered the packed Republic Square as the great rally was breaking up. The jeep contained seven Russians, including a new guard for a Prussian war memorial, which is 300. yards inside the British sector and near the Reichstag ruins. The jeep drove fast, nearly knocking down a number of persons. Germans booed, grabbed stones and beban pelting the Russians. The jeep stooped near the memorial. A Russian sergeant levelled a gun at the crowd. A British military police captain, John Hughes, seized the sergeant. . , , British military police quickly surrounded the Russian party. Then the Russian relief guard marched between escorting British police to their post at the memorial. The police then escorted the old guard back to the jeep. It seemed at this, stage that a serious incident had been averted. OPENED FIRE ON CROWD Herr Franz Neumann,-German socialist leader, mounted the! Reichstag steps and began speaking to distract the crowd from the Russians. He had hardly begun speaking when ten Russian soldiers, standing inside the Russian sector opened fire with submachine guns from under Brandenburg Gate, towards which part of tne dispersing crowd was surging. The people in the crowd threw themselves to the ground. Some were trampled. At the same tirixe- seven Russians near the memorial fired a few shots. One German youth climbed a flagpole near thd Brandenburg Gate and ripped the Russian boundary flag from the rope and tossed it to angry anti-Communist demonstrators below. They tore it to shreds: Russian troops turned their guns on the German up the flagpole. He jumped or fell and the crowd caught him and carried him about cheering wildly. Then the Russian shooting drove the crowd back. The- British United Press correspondent saw a German sitting in motor-car shot in the back. British military police escorted the Russian jeep' from the square. The Russians alternatively shouted “filthy Fascists” at the British police and the Germans howled to the British for protection from the crowd. Their jeep had a smashed windscreen. British police reinforcements cordoned the Russian memorial and moved the crowd back from it to the opposite side of the street with cool efficiency. Meanwhile ,another section of the crowd reached the Allied Control Authority building in the British sector and forced open the iron gates, but left at a police request, while Franz Neumann handed in a petition protesting against the Russian and Communist terrorism. During the anti-Communist rally a vast crowd roared apjl’oval of the speeches by anti-Communist politicians. The Western sector police chief, Dr Stumm, said the crowd was _ the greatest he could remember —bigger than the Nazi regime yallies. The crowd observed a one-minute silence to honour ths victims of political terror, both Nazi and Communist. Germans kept up a chorus of angry jeering, booing and catcalls at .the Russians. News Agency correspondents agree that the of the Russians in Republic Square was like a red rag to a bull to the Germans. The Daily Mail’s Berlin correspondent reports that at least one man is dead and possiblv 20 wounded, as a result of the shooting. The dead man is believed to be the one who pulled down the Russian flag. The Russian-licensed news agency reported that “Fascist youths from the British sector Intruded into the Russian sector and' attacked the police with stones, firearms and 'fists, injuring several policemen. The police fired warning shots. Some bad-ly-injured policement were abducted to the British sector. The Soviet sector police were fired on from, the Reichstag ruins. Two were wounded. One iS said to have died.” „ The American-licensed news agency said the Soviet sector police arrested between 20 and 30 Geimßritish public safety headquarters said the situation was under control. Reuter’s correspondent says the crowds dispersed, but extra British police and Russian troops are on duty.

Victims of Shootings

(Received September 10, 9.40 p.m.) ■ LONDON, September 10. Th e British sector police have announced that a German, a fifteen-year-old boy, has died in hospital as a result of bullet wounds received after Thursday’s demonstration. Five other Germans, with bullet wounds, were admitted to Western sector hospitals. One Eastern sector . policeman was arrested in the British sector.

British Official Version Says Shootings Were Only Minor Incident

(Received September 10, 10.40 p.m.) LONDON, September 10. The British Commandant, MajorGeneral Herbert has issued a statement on the shootings on Thursday s demonstrations. It is based on British and German police reports. It differs from the earlier eye-witness reports. The statement said that a crowd of one quarter of a million people assembled outside of the Reichstag foi' the meeting, after which the crowd dispersed, in the British sector, in an orderly fashion. The report said: “There was a minor incident in the Soviet sector, where the crowd became hostile to the oc-

cupants of a Soviet jeep. Stones probably were thrown. There apparently, was some revolver’ shooting a little later, in the Unter Den Linden, within hearing of the British sector. Some youths pulled down the Red Flag from the top of the Brandenburg Gate. A crowd in the Soviet sector then became hostile. Part of it surged back through the Brandenburg Gate into the British sector. The Soviet guard, on a Soviet war memorial, in the British sector, then drove a jeep into a road junction west, of the Brandenburg Gate, which is part of the Soviet sector, and got it into a position to fire on the crowd in the British sector. A British as-Distant-Provost Marshall dissuaded them fro/a doing this, after two shots had been fired in the air. > British section police then successfully dispersed the crowd in the British sector. There was no firing in the British sector. Nobody was shot in the British sector. Two shots were, however, fired into the British sector. ■The number of casualties in the Soviet sector is not known.

Soviet Comment On Demonstration (Received September 10, 9.10 p.m.) LONDON, September 10. The Russian-controlled Berlin radio early on Friday blamed “Fascist elements” in the city’s population for the shootings in the Republic Square at the British sector on Thursday. It also complained of a lack of co-operation by British military police. Communists to Hold Counter Demonstration In Soviet Sector (Received September’ 10, 10.10 p.m.) LONDON, September 10. The Communist-led Socialist Unity Party has called for a counter-demon-stration on Sunday at noon in the Soviet sector of Berlin, as against Thursday’s demonstration in the British sector against the Communists. RUSSIAN GENERAL BREAKS HIS WORD AT BERLIN LONDON, September 9. The French commandant in Berlin, General Jean Ganeval, to-day accused the Russian authorities of a “flagrant breach of the personal guarantee” given by General Kotikov. General Ganeval wrote to General Kotikov, saying: “As a result of a telephone call made on your initiative yesterday, an agreement was reached between us, under which all persons were authorised to leave the City Hall and quit the Soviet sector without being stopped. You assured me you personally would be responsible fir carrying out this order”. General Ganeval added that General Kotikov knew that' the Russian allegations, that the French officers tTini’n WHS falSO.