RAMADIER RESIGNS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26625, 22 November 1947, Page 7

RAMADIER RESIGNS

PRIME MINISTER’S POST 6 ' FRENCH POLITICAL CRISIS M. BLUM TO FORM NE\? CABINET PARIS. Nov. 20. It is officially announced that the Prime Minister, M. Ramadier, has resigned. He has also tendered the resignation of the Cabinet so that “ action may be taken in which all the Republic and parties can share responsibility.” M. Blum has been commissioned to form a new Cabinet. France recalled to the colours 140,000 reserves as President Vincent Auriol consulted the political leaders in an effort to end the economic and political crisis through the formation of a “ middle-of-the-road" coalition Ministry. M. Auriol fiom dawn received the leaders of the Centre parties. The consultation lasted all morning. M. Auriol, in a press conference, appealed to French strikers, in their own and the national interests, to return to work immediately. “ The right to strike is contitutional, but misery suffering, and hunger are not.” M. Auriol said an interim period was required for the formation of a new Government. He planned “to work fast," and to inform the National Assembly by letter to-night of his choice for the Premiership, so the Assembly could proceed with the investiture to-morrow.

Police and Troops Posted

The National Assembly met to-day and heard the formal announcement of M. Ramadier’s resignation, and adjourned. Police and troops have been posted at strategic centres in Paris and Marseilles. A message from- London says that the Paris correspondent of The Times states that one of the last acts of M. Ramadier’s Government was to approve a Bill for military reorganisation which, if passed, will combine general army, navy, and air staffs. It will also make permanent the present arrangement of a Minister for the armed forces. 4 In a message received before M. Ramadier’s resignation was announced, the correspondent said: “ Opinion in the press and elsewhere is almost unanimous in underlining the gravity of the present situation, and there is almost visible impatience that at such a moment the clash of interests and doctrines within the political parties should prevent them from constructing a new and stronger Government. Activity of Communists

It is now widely assumed that the Communist campaign is part of a larger strategy aimed at disrupting French life just at the moment when the United States Congress is beginning ( to consider the proposals for foreign aid. Some observers go farther and argue that the Communist tactics are designed to force General de Gaulle into power before he desires it, and to make him employ, once there, extreme methods against what by then will be a paralysed France. Reuter’s Paris correspondent says that the French Government has moved against France’s 600,000 strikers with a requisitioning campaign aimed at breaking the threatened nation-wide general strike. The Government began with Paris and Marseilles flour mins, and troops transported flour. Police evicted “ stay-in ” strikers from the Citroen works, near Paris, and left master technicians to keep the machines running. Many Citroen strikers returned to work under police protection. The Communist newspaper Le Soir called the Government's action an “ armed offensive.”

Three times Premier of France, Mr Leon Blum, at the age of 75, told . reporters that he accepted the responsibility of forming a Government of “ public safety" to solve France’s disrupted labour situation, says the British United Press Paris correspondent. M. Blum, after a gruelling day of non-stop conferences, told M. Auriol that he was assured of sufficient support in the Assembly. The Paris correspondent of the Associated Press says 5000 of 110,000 ' striking coal miners have returned To work in reply to the Government’s declaration that the strikes were political.