FRENCH GOVERNMENT MAY HAVE LONG STRUGGLE WITH COMMUNISTS

Grey River Argus, 12 October 1948, Page 5

FRENCH GOVERNMENT MAY HAVE LONG STRUGGLE WITH COMMUNISTS

OVER HALF MILLION STRIKERS

(Rec. 9.30) LONDON, October 11. Reuter’s Paris correspondent states that over half a million workers are idle in Prance with the strike now starting its second week and showing signs of developing into a bitter drawn-out struggle between the Communists and the Government. The Cpmmunist led General Confederation of Labour, which is the driving force behind the strike wave, will open its annual Congress to-day.. French railway workers, at the same time, will vote on whether they should join the coal strikers. The strike, meanwhile, is reacting on the political situation with several provincial delegates of the Socialist Party’s National Council urging Communist participation in the Government.

Parish priests in the Meurthe-et-Moselle Department, where clashes have occurred, read from their pulpits on Sunday a statement said to have been approved by the Bishop of Nancy, endorsing. the workers' claims for higher wages to meet the increased cost of living.

State Not to Requisition Mines

PARIS, Oct, 10 The Premer, Dr Henri Queuille,. met non-Commumst miners’ representatives to-day to discuss the strike. Union security crews stood guard over the deserted coal pits and coke ovens in Northern France as the miners’ strike ended its first week. This action removes one or the most disputed issues between the Government and the strikers. An official announcement said the Government would not requisition the mines, as planned earlier, if their security were guaranteed. The Communists issued a call for a one-day general strike to-morrow in Moselle province to coincide with the funeral of the Yugoslav miner killed in a clash with the police on October 8 at Merbach. The Communist-led Miners’ Union at Lens rejected the non-Communist Union’s offer to hold a new strike referendum. The railwaymen’s strike at Chambery has disrupted the train services between France and Italy. A referendum among all railway workers for or against a strike throughout France will be held to-morrow.