VIOLENT RIOTING

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26619, 15 November 1947, Page 7

VIOLENT RIOTING

MARSEILLES AND MILAN CLASHES WITH COMMUNISTS TENSE SCENES IN FRENCH ASSEMBLY Rec. 9 p.m. LONDON, Nov. 14. Riots and strikes continued in Marseilles and Milan as Communists clashed with Right Wingers, and in both Italy and France disturbances have provoked political clashes in the National Assemblies. In Marseilles food stores closed and road transport halted as Communist union leaders brought riot-torn Marseilles to the edge of a general strike. The port has completely shut down. In Paris the Premier, M. Paul Ramadier, replying to a rowdy debate in the French Assembly, flatly accused the Communists for the responsibility of the Marseilles riots. The debate was nearly a riot itself, with deputies shouting accusations across the Chamber. Waving his fists, M. Ramadier challenged the Comi.iunists: “If you want a dictatorship, we will fight you to the end.”

The Communist deputy, M. Francois Billoux. former Mayor of Marseilles, admitted that the Communists in Marseilles on Wednesday assaulted the City Hall “in order to permit Communist councillors to sit in tranhours of rioting at Marseilles Palais de Justice on Wednesday resulted in one death and two seriously hurt and 20 less seriously. Crowds later marched to the Marseilles City Hall, where the de Gaullist new Administration was taking office. The Mayor, M. Michel Carlini. and the Deputy Mayor, M. Pierre Milani, were injured and taken to hospital in further rioting. The magistrates, after an emergency meeting yesterday, prohibited the formation of groups of people in the streets and instructed troops rushed to the city to keep pedestrians moving In Marseilles more than 15,000 workers were on strike yesterday, and as the result of a general strike call, the strike is likely to spread throughout the department. Violence flared up in 17 Italian cities yesterday from Milan. Genoa and Turin in the north to Ban and Catanzaro in the south. Five tanks stood in the Piaiza del Popolo in Rome and mobile police were stationed outside all Government buildings. A tank was also put at the disposal of the police at Milan, Naples and Turin. In Rome rioters devastated the Monarchist headquarters in the Galleria Umberto. Other groups went through the offices of the “Common Man” Movement and Italian Social Movement in various parts of the city setting fire to furniture. Similar riots occurred outside Naples. Riots in Milan resulted in four killed. In the Italian Constituent Assembly, Left deputies shouted pro- - tests and invective as the Minister of the Interior, Signor Mario Sce»ba, denied that the Government was responsible for the disorders. Communists were denounced for “attempts against the State and democracy” and he said that he would not permit the establishment of a system of terrorism under the pretext of fighting Fascism. Asked if the Communists intended to keep the fight against the Government on a parliamentary plane, the Communists’ leader. Signor Palmiro Togliatti, replied: “We will stay on a parliamentary plane as long as that is possible for problems that can be settled on a parliamentary plane. For the rest of you who are Liberals, show me that it is possible to organise a democratic revolution.” The Rome correspondent of The Times says that in the absence of any serious rupture between labour and capital, it would certainly seem that the disorders were premeditated. They cannot be justified by the general situation throughout the country which has shown steady improvement in, recent .weeks Right. Wing commentators describe the disturbances as the first fruits of a new policy by the recently created Cominform.