Word: sedly
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...weeks ago a huge billboard covered with propaganda posters of the Soviet-backed Socialist Unity Party (SED) attracted unusual attention in the heart of bomb-shattered Dresden in the Russian zone. Plastered squarely in the center of the billboard was a red poster bearing the slogan: "Wir haben kein Papier, aber wir sind auch hier" (We have no paper, but we are also here). The poster was signed by the anti-Communist Christian Democratic Union (CDU). Firemen soon tore down the poster, but thousands of Dresdeners had enjoyed a good chuckle...
Rare as a Swastika. The Dresden billboard incident points up only one of many direct and indirect methods the Russians have employed to give the SED maximum advantages over the other two parties, CDU and Liberal Democrats (LDP). Lampposts, streetcars, newspaper kiosks, billboards and public buildings scream with SED campaign posters throughout the Russian zone, but CDU and LDP posters are almost as rare as a swastika. In the Land of Saxony, the SED has a daily newspaper with a million circulation. The LDP organ, appearing thrice weekly, has 50,000 circulation and the CDU newspaper, with 35,000 circulation...
Election regulations specify that each party or organization can put up its own candidate list only in communities where it has a local organization. The favored SED has been able to establish organizations in most communities. The other two parties lag far behind. The SED people have little difficulty getting automobiles and gasoline. Other parties are largely immobile. In Saxony, the SED was recently allotted 30,000 liters of gasoline, the LDP 100 liters...
Officially all parties must obtain permission of the local German authorities or Russian commander to hold meetings; speakers and speeches must be approved by the Russians. The interminable list of SED rallies indicates that the party has little trouble obtaining permits. Other parties, as one discouraged CDU leader put it, "run into endless chicanery." He added: "It has developed into quite a set pattern. We plan a meeting and tentatively reserve a hall. We submit application for the meeting, but days and sometimes weeks elapse. By the time we receive the approval our hall has been taken by somebody else...
Helping Hand. The Russians' decision to release 120,000 German prisoners of war from Russian camps was beautifully handled to reflect credit upon the SED. Otto Grotewohl, co-chairman of SED, was permitted to announce the release in mid-July at a convention of women's committees in Berlin. A similar maneuver characterized the Russian decree of July 14 announcing increased rations for invalids and expectant mothers. The announcement began: "At the request of the SED and for improving food conditions of the German population...