GERMAN COMMUNISTS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 20708, 4 May 1929, Page 13

GERMAN COMMUNISTS

FIGHT WITH THE POLICE. BARRICADES IN THE STREETS. . (United Press Association.) fßy Electric Telegraph—Copyright.) BERLIN, May 2. (Received May 3, at 7 p.m.) Following a day of comparative quiet, the Communists to-night smashed street lamps, threw up barricades, and fired on police reinforcements which were hurried to the spot. The police returned the fire, wounding several, and then sur-. rounded the Communists’ headquarters. The Communists, who have not abandoned..hope,. are exploiting the situation and calling on the workers of Germany to join the gigantic fight as a protest against “ the blood bath caused by the inhuman Berlin police,” until all those arrested arjs released. Strikes have already broken out at the Hamburg shipyards and the Ruhr coal mines. Figures show that 10 are dead and 166 injured. Buildings in the neighbourhood of the fighting were heavily scarred by machine gun and rifle bullets. Charges of murder have been levelled at some, of the 1000 who were arrested. —Australian Press Association. POLICE USE ARMOURED CAR. BARRICADES BROKEN DOWN. BERLIN, May 2. (Received May 3, at 9 p.m.) Communist crowds collected at various points all day long. There was occasional revolver firing but nothing serious happened till 10 o’clock at night, when an armoured car, bristling with machineguns, followed by three lorries filled with armed police, crashed through the Communist barricades. ■ at. Her mannstrasse, in the south-eastern quarter. The Communists, who had previously extinguished the street lamps, fired upon the police with revolvere from windows. The police replied with rifle fire, eventually scatterng the crowd with machinegun fire. Three were killed and 20 wounded at midnight, after which there was only occasional and isolated shooting.—Times Cable.