STRIKES AND RIOTS

Evening Star, Issue 24329, 19 October 1942, Page 3

STRIKES AND RIOTS

TROUBLE IN OCCUPIED FRANCE THE DISORDERS SPREADING LONDON. October 16. Assassinations and attacks on Germans and German sympathisers are spreading in occupied France. According to reports reaching Vichy many have been killed and a largo number injured in the riots and disturbances. Following the serious disorders in Lyons, strikes are spreading through occupied France, and the Swiss radio reports that the National Guards, at Saint Etienne were forced to clear a number of factories, while at Grenoble and Chambery further ■workers are on strike.

Reports from the French frontier state that 10,000 men are already invovled in mass strikes, and tension is growing in the Lyons area, to which large numbers of Gestapo agent# have been drafted. _ More than 100 are at present searching for secret radio stations"' at Charbonnieres, six miles from Lyons, and other agents have arrived at Cropieux 1c Pape, north-east of Lyons, and Cessieu, west of LatourDupin. The agents are equipped with French identity cards, and are granted the same powers as French detectives. French police inspectors have been ordered to place themselves at the agents’ disposal. The railway station at Lyons was the scene of an explosion when carriages for workers being taken to Germany were destroyed. It is also reported that French frontier guards have been strengthened to prevent workers for Germany from fleeing.

The correspondent of the ‘ Daily Express ’ on the _ French frontier says that LyoriSj CKambery, and Amberieu are the principal centres of the disorders. Riots ’ broke out in these places on October 15, when the names of,the men chosen for labour in Germany were exhibited. Workers at Chambery refused to move trains, and rioters at Amberieu destroyed rolling stock and locomotives. Fighting with the police and bomb-throwing Recurred in centres where the workers struck and demonstrated in the streets. Troops were called out, and . used grenades against the crowds. The troops afterwards factories, stations, and municipal buildings, and patrolled the streets with armoured cars. Women at Annecy paraded with placards, “We won’t let our husbands go to Germany,” 40 KILLED AT LYONS.

The correspondent of ‘ The Times ’• on the French frontier says 40 were killed and 200 wounded at Lyons, and 15 were killed and 200 wounded at Amberieu. Disturbances are also reported at Marseilles, Toulouse, and Tarbes.

The Vichy News Agency admits that strikes occurred in the railway workshops in the Lyons region, “ apparently owing to an erroneous interpretation of the conditions under which the recruiting of labour in exchange for war prisoners is being carried out.” It adds that work was resumed normally after several hours on the intervention of the local authorities and the Government without serious incident.

The Vichy radio said that three train loads of French workers from both occupied and unoccupied France, including women, left for Germany last, night. The women came from a weaving mill near Angers, in North-western France, from which both men and' women were drafted, and more women have been drafted from the spme mill. Reports from Paris state'that’sabotage is continuing throughout the, country, and crops and grain storehouses are being burned. The Germans are now combing every factory in France for skilled workers, and em-, ployers have been instructed to prepare batches, including engineers and works managers, in the hope that the present resistance to the departure of men to Germany may be overcome if men from the same factory work together in Germany. The . Swiss newspaper, ' ‘ Tribune da Lausanne,’ says: “Feeling is very high, and the Laval Government’s attempts to provide Germany with man, power are meeting with tenacious opposition, which it would be foolish to ignore if the situation among our neighbours is sensibly judged.” Dr Boening, the German commissar for man power in Holland, demanded 70,000 skilled Dutch workers for Germany to reinforce the 300,000 Dutch already in Germany. Thirty thousand skilled Dutch metal workers were removed from their jobs last month and sent to Germany. Skilled Dutchmen are conscripted by German-foremen appointed to Dutch undertakings as “ trustees ” for the workmen. Skilled workers are being replaced by unskilled part-time workers and unemployed, of whom Dr Boening estimates there are still 100,000. DAY OF RECKONING.

The New York ‘ Herald-Trjbune’s * Washington correspondent says; “Every town, in France has completed black lists of persons who will be killed on the day of France’s liberation, and 1,000,000 Frenchmen will be slaughtered unless preventive action is taken, asserted M. Andre Philip, Commissioner of the Interior with the French National Committee. He said he believed that civil war could be averted only if General de Gaulle makes a direct personal appeal to the French ipcople to refrain from private vengeance when the United Nations’ forces laud in France.” FEELING AGAINST VICHY HARSH MEASURES RESENTED LONDON, October 17. The Lisbon correspondent of ‘The Times ’ states that the unpleasant activities of a new organisation, “ Service D’ordre du Legion,” are producing in France an atmosphere common' to countries under the thumb of a powerful secret police force. Members of the legion are armed with tommyguns and revolvers, and are mounted on motor cycles. Their duties appear to include the provocation as well as the rounding-up of undesirables. Their use is dictated by the tremendous sway against Vichy since August 26, when the abolition of Parliament was announced. Since then the Laval Government is reported to have lost 70 per cent, of its supporters, particularly among the clergy. The harsher measures are causing the people to hide everything possible, from firearms to food. The population, after a long period of apathy, are now reported to be as wholeheartedly desirous of an Allied -victory as the residents of occupied France. This does not mean love for Britain, but a longing to regain their independence. General Dentz. who was formerly Governor of Syria, recently made an impression when he concluded an uncensored speech in which he made an attack on Britain by saying “ the.v were perfectly right to act as they did in Syria.” He was placed under house arrest for five days, after which he was in disgrace. . ...