GERMAN SOCIALISTS.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXVIII, Issue 5804, 23 January 1906, Page 5

GERMAN SOCIALISTS.

GREAT DEMONSTRATIONS. MEETINGS OF FIFTY THOUSAND PERSONS. SERIES OF RESOLUTIONS. (Received January 22. 10.5 p m ) RERUN, January 22. The Socialist party organised meetings in the German cities for to-day to protest against the prevailing electoral systems in many of the Federal States and also in memory of Vladimir Day (“Red Sunday”) in St, Petersburg. A stern -police warning was issued in Berlin, suggesting the possibility of serious disturbance. Although tho meetings were prohibited at Hamburg, Leipsig, Dresden, and several other cities, tho authorities permitted ninety-three meetings in Berlin, which were attended by over fifty thousand persons. Resolutions wero carried welcoming tho revolutionary successes in Russia, sympathising with the victims of autocratic tyranny, protesting against tho thrco-ciass Prussian electoral system, demanding universal, equal, and secret suffrage, and condemning tho “ reactionary Russian Diet ” as a caricature of a real representative Assembly. Strong forces of cavalry, infantry, and artillery wore held ready to support a thousand police, but there was not tho slightest disturbance. An unofficial force of workmen’s police easily controlled their comrades, who claim a triumph for tho Socialist organisation. Several Reichstag Deputies protested at tho meetings against tho injustice of the Prussian electoral system, practically disfranchising a million and throocpiarters of Social Democratic electors. Herr Bebcl remarked that though Socialists were Social Democrats there was no occasion at present to transfer their agitation to tho streets. Tho events in Russia must bo regarded as " Mono, Tckol ” (tho writing on tho wall) for tho governing classes. Great Social Democratic demonstrations passed off quietly at Frankfurt, Hanover, Kiel, Cologne, Breslau, and other towns.