AIL STRIKE IN FRANCE

Chronicle (Levin), 9 June 1947, Page 5

AIL STRIKE IN FRANCE

Press Assn.-

Tourists Stranded ; Taxi Owners Score

Telegraph i

-Comright

Received Monday, 11 ajn. PARIS, June 8. There is almost a total railway rike throughout France. Some cal services are contintiing rouiid le provincial cities but every our brings news of more stopages. The strike lias spread to he administrative staff. The strike saw more than 10,000 British holidayma-kers ;tranded • in France, yestefd&y, nany of them with littie left oi ;heir regulation allowance of £75. Today they are thinning out, either returning to Britain or making their way to Paris. Bewildered travellers jamined the entrances to stations trying to find means of transport out of Paris. Tourists offered taxi drivers high prices to take them to Tours or Amiens. Six hundred passengers from America are forced to remain aboard the trans-Atlantic liners Ernie Pyle and Marine Falcon because the strike makes it impos•sible for them to leave Le Havre. Reports from the ports say that food and coal cargoes are accumulating as railway waggons become scarce, City workers walked to their shops and offices and many others were unable to get to work. The strike caused a shortage of taxis which weiit to the suburbs and accepted twice the normal load of passengers on a strictly non-meter fiflancial basis. Owners of long diStance buses to the Riviera in many cases quadrupled their prices. The Premier, M. Ramadier, bfoadcast an appeal to the railway strikers to continue working until wage adjustments were made. He reminded them that it was generally understoo'd that the Government would adjust wages as from July 1, and told leaders of the railway rinion that he would not continue negotiations until they halted the strikes. The Transport Minister, M. Monch, has announced that from today French military and naval planes will fly over the commercial aif routes, Army lorries would carry priority goods ahd a Government bus service would operate in certain parts of the country as part of the Government's emergency plan tp keep transoort moving diiring the railway strike. The Central Union of Railway Workers has ofdered its rtiembers to continue the strike until its deinands are compietely satisfled. Large crowds of stranded Britons at French Chahrfei pofts are now thiniiing out either returning tO Hritain or making their way to Paris.