RIOTING IN BERLIN.

Timaru Herald, Volume CVIII, Issue 16822, 30 May 1919, Page 11

RIOTING IN BERLIN.

UNDERWORLD LET LOOSE. TERRIBLE BRUTALITY, Berlin's underworld was lot loose for the latest street warfare, 'which for some days and nights turned the city into a vast battlefield, grim witli scenes of cruelty such as, fortunately, ar'o hardly ever known in organised "civilised" waifare, says a London paper of March 16 Chiefly among the criminal classes Radek, the Russian Bolshevik, recruited his fighting force. These Spn.rtacist> forces amounted to about 10,000 men, mostly deserters, apaches, and escaped convicts, reinforced by sailors of the naval division; Emerging suddenly from their haunts in the cellars and islums of Berlin's East End, this army of criminals directed its. attack against police stations and policemen, its hereditary foes; Many police officials were murdered in cold blood by tlieir enemies. . ■

Women and young girls took a prominent part in the, fighting, carrying ammunition and food to their male protectors, and they distinguished themselves particularly 'by their cruelty against prisoners. One girl of eighteen, who was captiire'd by the Government troops, is accused by eye-witnesses of having personally caused the assassination of twenty soldiers and. policemen. ..'"'■■ The damage done to Berlin by artil-lery-fire and air bombs is estimated .at £30,000,000. More than 300 houses are badly damaged; and about eighty are completely wrecked. Litchtenburg (a Berlin suburb) ipreV sents an amazing picture of battle, and destruction., The houses are deserted, Ihe shops plundered and empty. Ma-chine-guns-rattle all around, and large motor lorries rush eastwards, heavily armoured . and laden with mine-throw-ers. . ."'. ..-"■■/ " ,

In this unhappy suburb, the doing of. the , Spartacists were worse even than' the Bolshevist cruelties in Russia. All well-clad citizens -who appeared* in the streets were plundered, and many killed. The savagery and blood-thirst-iness of the mob are indescribable. A Government. soldier who was thrown to the crowd was killed by kniyes, and a woman carried his decapitated head hi. triumph. Another soldier was beaten to death and hacked to pieces /by women.' In Kaiser Street the buildings bear 'the scars of tens of thousands of proiectiles, and Frankfurt Street is reminiscent of dead towns in Northern France',, with the shattered houses standing like rows of ghastly skeletons. Across many Streets are barricades : of,'rolls ~ of. paper,, barbed wire, arid blocks of paving material. ' ; : Mooting prisoners.

; "Both sides are snooting prisoner's. As a, result of the Spartacists shooting 57 police-officials, after the siege of one of the headquarters stations, Herr Noske (the Government "War Minister," |or "Defence Minister") issued the following ;deeree:— "The _ cruelty and brutality 0 f the Spartacists now fighting against us compel me to (.order .that any person found with anna in his hands fighting -against Government troops is to he im- ;,. -> , : ;-. ~ This jlireat..,, was': carried out. A Spartacasfc meft" ; was lofiated, and 30 men .who ;were captured wera immediately shot. ■■■ The lighting was carried on not only in th e streets, but also by air and underground. For the moment Bolshevism is, happily, checked; but a welter of pillage and murder -still remains, and tie state of anarchy continues in many; centres.

Barricades, : v machine-guns, war 'planes, heavy artillery/' band-bombs, and. "tanks" took part in the fighting, and there were many scenes of infantry storming fortressed public buildincrs.

To-day the fate of Berlin as a political and'industrial centre is swaying in tne balance, as did that of Paris just 48 years ago, after the Franco-Prussian war. But he would he a hold prophet now who would guess that Berlin and Prussia can recover an honourable position in Europe as quickly as did the Paris and France of 1871. Berlin is handicapped by her past as Paris was buttressed by her past; the latter had been < for centuries the capital of a united nation; the former has been for two generations the radiating centre of the. one bond—military dominance — hardly uniting, and often antagonising, a. group of peoples now struggling to be free.

A TEMPORARY LULL. After, the killing and wounding of far over 1000 people in Berlin street fights, the '"lmperial Republican" Government got, at least temporarily, the. upper hand; of ti.e Spartacist's or BoP sheviks. . ' Below are some/stories told by cor-respondents-m Berlin of the course of the week's fighting before the government reduced the chaos to a comparative kind of,order. In the cruel fighting in the Liohtenburg suburb, where the rebels offered a desperate resistance,"more than one hundred- and fifty • soldiers, police, and civilians were murdered. When the Spartacists stormed the police station those captured included the President of Police, with his /wife and children. The family was murdered, with others, some on the roof, others in the courtyard. - Others, again, who were released, were shot down while flying for safety. The Sparta-cists used_ and from these bombed civilians.

Government troops engaged against the terrorists were, as a retaliation, ordered to no quarter. The Spartacists took to robbing and plundering under Bolshevik leaders. Some Russians set to work murdering everyone who refused to fight against the Government.

HORROR AND DANCE OF DEATH.

Damage to houses, buildings, and shops in the neighbourhood of the fighting far surpasses that which was don© in the former fighting, which amounted to some £2,000,000.

The Berlin morgue became so full that on Friday orpses brought there were not taken in. In 24 hours 125 wounded civilians, including 25 women and three children, were taken to the accident stations.

Insurgents used the utmost brutality towards Government soldiers who fell into their hands, in many cases actually tearing them to pieces.

In the east end of, the city tremendous devastation was wrought. Several housc-s were converted into ruins by gunfire and hand grenades.

During the week of battle Berlin was perfectly mad, dancing, drinking, gambling, and doping.. The Express correspondent says:—"l was handed an envelope containing a ticket for the 'workers' ball' to begin at seven o'clock •' the attractions v-fre two American bars —I am quoting; the ticket—and prizes for the most beautiful and for the most original costumes —a lot of wild, bunuvhugging, fox-trotting couples and much drinking. Ii was the 'workers' ball'— note the words —but the entrance fee wns 155."

There are more than a hundred dancing places going full blast in Berlin : they- range from the magnificent and ciuite orderly "palais de danse" to low places where tlie ball terminates in a free figlifc.