RIOTS IN PARIS.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXVI, Issue 2259, 3 August 1908, Page 3

RIOTS IN PARIS.

TROOPS FIRE ON MOB. SEVERAL PEOPLE KILLED. United Press Association. Copyright PARIS, July 31. Owing to allegations that the (authorities -hiirshly (treated the strikers at the sand pits, DraveiJ, A'lgnoa■ux. the workmen of the building and allied trades of Paris struck for the day, whilst iau organised monster demionstintion was proceeding at Vigneaux. ' The chief organiser, named Greffiuellhes, a (leading official'of the Generali Confederation of Labor, has issued a ni inifesto frankly describing the demonstration as being the preparatory skirmish lin a coming wnr between the workers and the parasites (meaning -the capitalists). /Anti cipating-tin Anarchiu 1 outbreak, two cavalry divisions were sent to assist tlie police in the Vi.gneaux district. Four thousand Parisian strikers trudged there. After a speech large groups preceded by >i red flag started towards Melun. They came in contact with a detachment of cavalry. Greeting the cavalry with cries of “Down with the army!" stones were thrown and sticks brandished to frighten the horses. After n fruitles parley, following pistol shots from the -rioters, the soldiers struck them with til© flat of their sabres, dispersing thorn. Simultaneously, -another body was-prevented from using-a-bar-ricade. Dragoons and cuirassiers pursued them, und -dismounting fought their way up the railway embankment, where a hand-to-hand encounter ensued, there being an improvised barricade of trucks. The most serious conflict took place l-ater in the iniin street of Villeneuve, Saint George’s. A barricade consisting of timber -and drains was placed across itlie street. iShots wore fired from behind the barricades, also from the windows -and roofs of bouses, besides showers of stones and -bottles. The Prefect of the Department telegraphed -for reinforcements, declaring that the strikers we-e m-i. lers of the situation.' After vain -appr-o.'s to (the

and firing four times in the " air, the-troops fired « vol'ey. which wounded several -and killed two. Three of the wounded succumbed. About twenty were injured by sabre charges. A bullet grazed a general’s foot, another hit a colonel on the shoulder. Stones and shots hurt twenty soldiers. M. Cleineneeau, the Premier, announces that a judicial inquiry iwilil he held into the conduct of those .guilty-of rebellion against the .forces of the State and as to the instigators. Tlie Confederation of Labor has (issued a manifesto urging all unions to imitate the builders’ tactics as a protest aigiinst the Government’s ferocious methods o.f repression. The Paris (press clamor for ithe suppres,sion of the Confederation of Labor, on the ground that it is a seditious organisation.