CRISIS FACES FRANCE

Chronicle (Levin), 27 June 1947, Page 5

CRISIS FACES FRANCE

Press Assn

Austerity Strikes Gather Momentum

Bv .Telearavh

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Received Thursday, I0.5p p.m. LONDON, June 26. The majority of jPrench mornmg newspapers predict an earl'y Goy^rnr menL crisis as the -resuR; of ' thp new austei-ity Budget, says Reuter 's Paris eorrespondent. The inde])endent resistance .paper Combat went so far as to forecast a seizure of p'ower by a, dicfatpr if the Government' fejl ^'as 'a cousequence of the Ministprial crisis which certain people are still inclined to regard as a Parliameijtary ineident. ' The Socialist, M. Blum, writing in Populaire, adniitted the failure of the price reductiom plaiv he. •inaugirrated in December. He added: "France has experienced a. lot of Parliamentary crises Out they were small compared with the present one." With 250,000 workers already striking, 40,000 textile workers are prepared to walk out today if the Goverprnent does not meet deinands for jncreasecl production bonuses. , The National Union of Metallurgists, representing 300,000 men, annonnced a 24 hours' protest strike for July I and 1300 adniinistrative workers in mining offices joined the 180,000 striking miners.

The strike of 50,000 bank employees has crippled business transactions throughout France. The Christian Federa'tion of Trade Unions, which hitherto has maintained a moderate attitude on the questioii ot wage increases, has now joined the Conimunist eontrolled General Confeaeration of Labour in demanding generaj wage increases and condemning the new "save the frane" hnancial measures. Nearly 200,000 French coal- miners are on strike. The Minister of lndustrial Production (M. Loeaste) said the strike was costing 85,000 tons of desperately needed coal daily, and if it continued one-third of France 's stefel mills would have to elose. The managers of sqme of the coal mines where the miners are on strike • are fighting a losing battle to keep their coke furnaces alight to maintain the supplies of gas and electric current to towns receiving power direct from the pitheads. The gas in most towns in Xorthern France, however, has failed during the past two days. A feature of the strike is that it wjis caused not by a conflict on wages, -but dissatisfaction with the Government 's econoniic poliey. Several commentators, consequently, describe it as gn openly politieal strike and see in this fact a new and disturbing element.