Evening star., 1948-01-15
Red Master Plan
ToSabotageU.S.
Aid Is Exposed
Reich Paper Publishes
Protocol M Details:
Putsch Declared Aim
BY the Associated Press

BERLIN, Jan. 15.-BrltlSh and
American officials studied today
a reported Cominform scheme
Unidentified as protocol M"-for
smashing the Marshall Plan and
crippling the industrial Ruhr.
The anti-Communist German
press, which published the al
legged Com m unist program,
denounced it as a proposed
"putsch."
Details of the plan, first pub
lished by the French licensed news
paper Der Kurier late yesterday,
said the program, brought to light
in Western Germany, would be CO.
ordinated by the Cominform-the
Communist Information Agency"
set up by Communist leaders of nine
nations in Poland last fall-and
supported fully by the Soviet Union.
There seemed little inclination in
either British or American official
quarters to doubt the authenticity
of the plan. One American official
said publication of the plan alone
was damaging enough to the Com
munist program in Germany.
Authenticity Not Doubted.
An official British statement this
morning said "the announcement
of the Cominform plan came from
German sources and we have no
reason to doubt its authenticity"
In Hamburg DR.. r Kurt Schu-
macher, leader of the German So
cial Democrats, said today he had
a copy of the plan in his Hanover
headquarters. He called Protocol
M" the Communists master plan to
sabotage the Marshall Plan.
A spokesman at the headquarters
of the Communist-contro So
viet-sponsored Socialist Unity Party
in Berlin, described the plan as
nonsense" but added that he
couldn't say anything more about
it Immediately.
Protocol NJ" as published by
anti Communist newspapers in Ber-
lin today, sets out the operational
procedure for creating mass strikes
in transport and metal industries
of Western Germany ''to break the
monopolistic-capitalistic attack of
the so-called Marshall Plan"
Cominform Is Co-ordinator.
The protocol was quoted as de-
claring that the Cominform head
quarters in Belgrade would co-or-
dinate the efforts of the German
Communist Party with the fight in
all European countries. and added
that "the home of socialism union
can and will support this fight
against the monopolistic -capitalistic
powers with all and every means. :"
"In conjunction with the entire
working class of all European coun-
tries, the German working class will,
in a persevering battle for key po-
sitions of production, take over the
power" the plan was quoted as
stating: "It is not matter of min
isters' posts, but OF jumping
places for the final freeing of the
proletariat of the world
The German party was repeatedly
given the "key position" in this fight
to carry out the struggle for the
European production center in the
Ruhr."
The official organ of the Social
Democrat Party described the plan
as clear proof of the intention to
make economic recovery of Germany
impossible and, through a putsch,
to build a Communist dictatorship
in Germany on chaos of hunger
and misery with support OF the
Cominform.
Vital Rail Lines Named.
Yesterdays Kurier dispatch quoted
the plan as saying that the two
most vital rail lines in Germany
are the Bremen-Duesse1dorf and the
Hamburg -Bielefeld lines over which
move most of the supplies for the
British and American occupation
armies and much of the food i'm
ports for the Germans.
The newspaper said the plan as
serted that the British had taken
precautions against a breakdown of
rail transport by mobilizing trucks,
and added that these measures must
be nullified. 4
The dispatch said preparations
were to be completed by March l
for a general strike to be called for
fhn middle pf March
Der Kurier said seven German
Communists had been named as re-
sponsible for the accomplishment of
the plan and that arrangements
were discussed for communication
among the leaders by secret radio
tranSmitterS.