RIOTING IN BERLIN.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 12636, 22 May 1919, Page 2

RIOTING IN BERLIN.

UNDERWORLD LET LOOSE. TERRIBLE BRUTALITY. Berlin's underworld was let loose foil ike latest street warfare, which, lor some clays and nights turned, tho city into a, vast battlefield, grim with scenes of cruelty such ns, fortunately, arc hardly ever known in organised '‘civilised'' warfare, says a London paper of March 16. Chiefly among the criminal classes Radck, the Russian Bolshevik, recruited Ihs fighting force. These Sparracist forces amounted to about 1.0,000 men, mostly deserters, apaches and encaged convicts, reinforced by sailors of! the naval division. Emerging suddenly from their haunts in the cellars and slums of Berlin's Bast End, Ibid army of criminals directed its attack against iwlice stations and policemen, its hereditary foes. Many police, officials were murdered in cold blood by their enemies. M onion 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 cap-1 tured by tho Government troops, is no, o'.ised by eye-witnesses of having personally caused the assassination of twenty soldiers and policemen. The damage done to Berlin by artiL levy lire and air bomba is estimated at £6(1,000,000. More than 300 housed arc badly damaged, and about eighty are completely wrecked. Lichtenburg (a Berlin suburb) presents au amazing picture of battle a.ndl destruction. Tho houses are deserted, the shops plundered and empty. Ma-chine-guns rattle a,ll around, and large! motor lorries rush eastwards, heavily! armoured and laden with mine-throw-ers. In this unhappy suburb, the doings of tile Spartecists were worse even than; the Bolshevist cruelties in Russia. All well-clad citizens who appeared in thd streets were plundered, and many killed. The savagery and bloodthirstiness of the mob are indescribable. A Government soldier who was thrown to the crowd was killed by( knives, and a. woman earned his dec-a-l pibated head in triumph. Another soldier was beaten to death and hacked! to pieces by women. In Kaiser Street tho buildings bean scars ot lens of thousands of prod jectilcs, and. 1 Frankfurter Street is reminiscent of dead, towns in Northern! r ranee, with the shattered houses) standing like rows of ghastly skeletons.. Across many streets are barricades of rolls of paper, barbed wire, and blocks of paving material. '■SHOOTING PRISONERS. Both sides ore shooting prisoners. As a result of tho Spartacists shooting c }l 01 , ce °® Cli *ls, after the siege of one ot the headquarters stations, Herr Noske Government “ War Minister,” or Defence Minister”) issued the following decree:— . “ The cruelty and brutality of the Spartacists now fighting against us compel mo to order that any person found with aims in-his hands fighting against Government troops is to be immediately shot.” Tin's threat was carried out. A Spartacist nest was located, and 30 men who were captured were immediately shot. . The fighting was carried on not only in the streets, but also by air and underground. For the moment Bolshevism is, happily, cheeked, but a welter of pillage and murder still remains, and the state of anarchy continues in many centres. Barricades, machine-guns, wax’planes, heavy artillery. hand-bombs, and ‘‘tanks” took part in, the fighting, ami there .were many scones of infantry storming fortresSed public buildings. r l o-day_ the fate of Berlin as a political and industrial centre is swaying in the balance, as did that of "Paris just forty-eight years ago, after the FraneoPrussiim war. But ho would be a bold phopbet 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 V- ber 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 people now struggling to bo free. A TEMPORARY LULL. After the killing and wounding of far over 1000 people in Berlin street figlite, the “ Imperial Republican ” Government got, at least temporarily, the upper band of tho Spartacists or Bolsheviks. Below- are some stories told by correspondents in Berlin of the course of the week’s fighting before, the Government reduced tho chaos to a comparative kind of order. In tho cruel fighting in the Lichtenbnrg suburb, where the rebels offered a desperate resistance, more than a. hundred and fifty soldiers, police and civilians were murdered. "When the Sparta cists 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. Othejrs, again, who were released, were shot down while flying for safety. The Spartacists used aeroplanes, and from these bombed civilians. Government troops engaged against the terrorists were, as a retaliation, ordered 1 to show no quarter. ’Hie Spartueists took to robbing and plundering under Bolshevik leaders. Some Russians set. to work murdering everyone who refused to hgbtj?gainst the Government. HORROR AND DANCE OF DEATH. Damage to houses, buildings and shops in thejieighbourhood of the fighting far surpasses that which was done in the former fighting, which amounted to some £3,.009, 000. The Berlin morgue became so full that on Friday the corpses brought there were not taken in. In twentyfour. hours T2o wounded civilians, including twenty-five women and three children, were taken to the accident stations. [ Insurgents used the utmost brutality 1 towards Government soldiers who fell into their bands, in many cases actually tearing them to pieces. In the east end of the city tremendous devastation, was wrought. Several houses were converted into ruins by gunfire and hand grenades. During the week of battle Berlin was perfectly mad, dancing, drinking, gambling and doping. Tho “ Express ” correspondent says:—“l was handed an envelope containing a ticket for the ‘workers’ ball’ to begin at seven o’clock'; the attractions were two American bars-T am quoting the ticket and prizes for the most beautiful and for the most original costumes—a lot of wild, bunny-hugging, fox-trotting couples and much drinking. It was the ‘ workers’ ball ’ —note thy words--but. the entrance fee was 15s ” There are more than a hundred dancing places going full blast in Berlin; they range from the magnificent and quite order!}- “palais de danse ” to low places where the hall terminates in ai free fight.