GERMANY'S TROUBLES

Otago Daily Times, Issue 17503, 20 December 1918, Page 5

GERMANY'S TROUBLES

DEMOBILISATION WITHOUT SYSTEM.

SERIOUS LABOUR TROUBLES,

LONDON, December 17. . According to Berlin advices it is officially estimated' that Germany's food stocks will be exhansted by February. These prognostications are probably too pessimistic, but the authorities are distributing food more freely than the stocks justify. Butter costs 30 marks per lb, and chocolate 38 marks per lb. Industrial troubles are increasing owing to lack of Taw material. The coal miners refuse to work more than six hours a day. The labonring classes are irritable. Many of the factories still continue to turn out useless war products, in order to keep theizr workers employed. The employers are powerless, as authority over the factories remains with the Workers' Council. No employer Jβ allowed to close i any department or to reduce output. The ■workmen generally are armed, and include troops ready for street fighting. No successful effort has yet been made to absorb the millions of workers returning from the army.—A. and N.Z. and Renter. , GERMAN MEGALOMANIA. SOLDIERS CROWNED AS VICTORS. LONDON, December: 17. The Daily Express Berlin correspondent states: Scenes of enthusiasm marked the return of the troops. Ten thousand men are arriving every day. Herr Ebert addressed them from the rostrum opposite the French Embassy. The crowds cheered the soldiers, who wear laurel wreaths. Berlin has gone dancing mad. Crowds are filling the cabarets, dancing and drinking expensive wines.—A. and N.Z. Cable. DISTURBANCES AT HAMBURG. BIG SLAUGHTER PREDICTED. LONDON, December 17. Reports from The Hague state that the situation at Hamburg is steadily growing worse. The strength of Liebknecht's partisans has hitherto been due to their rnthlessness and determination not to stick at anything to gain their end, but their numbers are becoming fewer. Daily disturbances constantly occur. Eye-witnesses who have returned from Hamburg to The Hague saw a fight in which machine guns were posted at converging points of the streets, and they fired' with such deadly effect that eight people were killed and 40 wounded.

A majority of the people, including all the Bourgeois parties, are gradually-work-ing up to a pitch at which decisive resistance by anti-extremists -will be inevitable, and then slaughter on a big scale may be expected.—A. and N.Z. and Reuter. EFFECTS OF BOLSHEVISM. STRANGLING INDUSTRY. AMSTERDAM, December 17. As an example of the effect of Bolshevism on German, industry's existence, two great Siemens electrical engineering firms near Spandau (outside Berlin) are threatened by the workmen's demands, aggregating an extra £6,000,000 yearly. The workmen have been locked out.—A. and N.Z. and Reuter.

THE HUMOURS OF BOLSHEVISM.

v YOUTHFUL WOULD-BE LEGISLA--1 TORS.

BOY'S TERRIBLE WARNING. LONDON, December 17. (Received Dec. 19, at 7.45 p.m.) Berlin advices state that hundreds of hoys and girls paraded to the Reichstag Building, where the Soldiers and Work> men's Congress was proceeding, and demanded, inter alia, votes for those who had reached the age of- 18, abolition of corporal punishment in schools, and participation by children in the administration of government and schools. The processionists carried rod flags and incendiary placards. -A boy speaker warned the executive of the terrible consequences of failing to grant the demands. Tho chairman of the executive declared his sympathy with the demands. At a later demonstration in Reichstag square youthful orators demanded the moval of Herren Ebert and Scheidemann, and also condemned the convening of the National Assembly.—Reuter.

EBERT AND SCHEIDEMANN

THEIR REMOVAL DEMANDED. LONDON, December 17. (Received Dec. 19, at 7.45 p.m.) A message via The Hague states that the Soviets sent an ultimatum to the Government demanding the resignation of Herren Ebert and Scheidemann.—Reuter.