FRENCH RAILROAD CRIME.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLIII, Issue 2322, 30 August 1921, Page 4

FRENCH RAILROAD CRIME.

POSITION VERY GRAVE.

Constant sabotage against the French railroads which recently lias caused four serious accidents is providing the biggest problem the French Ministry of the Interior has had to face, and it is probable that military guards will be asked of the Ministry of War to protect the principal systems, as neither the railroads nor the Government can afford to_pay the expense of civilian guards’. At present there is only one rail inspector for every ten miles, and it is evident that 50,000 patrols must be found unless rite police are able to locate the Communist organisation which is believed to bo directing the wholesale destructiveoperations. In every accident recently the tools were found with which the sabotage was committed. In one instance more than 100 bolts were removed and two rails displaced in aneffort to wreck an express train with 200 passengers. Instead, two freight trains collided without loss of: life, and the signal was set against (he onrashing passenger train. On another occasion two signals were found locked on the main line, and the trains were stopped just in time to prevent it catastrophe. The police do not suspect railroad employees, but are leaning to the theory that the .attempts are the work of disgruntled Communist workers who have been discharged, or that they arc part of a deep laid plan to induce the Government to withdraw troops from the advanced posts of the occupied German territory for service within the frontiers. Inasmuch as the Minister for War, M. Bnrthou, has promised to demobilise the class of 1919 soon, such withdrawal would necessitate France’s abandoning the idea of continuing the occupation of the advanced zone until Germany has completed her disarmament.