EXTREMISTS GAINING STRENGTH.

Colonist, Volume LXI, Issue 15027, 22 March 1919, Page 5

EXTREMISTS GAINING STRENGTH.

(Australian and N.Z. Cable Association

London, March 15

The "Daily Telegraph's" Rotterdam correspondent states that, although Noske has been victorious in pitched battles, there is still much desultory rifle fire at Berlin at night time, and occasional shells from Spartaeist artillery.

Tliere are six hundred dead lying in the morgue and hospitals. Many Spartaeist victims were buried secretly.

There is a strong revulsion of feeling against the ruthlessness of the Government troops. Tliere were summary executions, especially in Lichtenberg, where scores of innocent men and children ■were killed. ■ Berliners believe that the extremists are gaining strength throughout the country, and will engineer another outbreak. It is significant that the trade unions and co-operative societies are dismissing the majority of their Socialist officials, and installing Independent Socialists. The Government is passing a Bill forbidding traffic in Russian money and securities, hoping thus to prevent the Spartacists obtaining Russian financial support. j Paris, March 19. J The French are reported to have oc- ! cupied Mannheim and Karlsruhe, in I consequence of Spartaeist outbreaks. I Berlin, March 19. j In defence of the ox-Kaiser's flight, Hindenburg is publishing the statement that the runaway was due to the weakening of the army and the spread ;of revolutionary opinions.