ACTION BY GOVERNMENT

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26629, 27 November 1947, Page 5

ACTION BY GOVERNMENT

Rec. 10 p.m. PARIS, Nov. 26. The Government is understood to be preparing a Bill to make strikes illegal unless preceded by majority votes by secret ballot. The Daily Express correspondent emphasises that the C.G.T.’s decision to call a general rail strike was made while the C.G.T. delegation was in consultation with , M. Schuman and before the result of the discussion was known. M. Leon Jouhaux, leader of the anti-Communist minority in the C.G.r., was a member of the delegation which met M. Schuman. and after the meeting he was still unaware that the C.G.T. executive had decided to issue the strike call. . The correspondent says that the strike order is the Communists’ all-out challenge to M. Schuman. Reuter’s correspondent says that u is not yet possible to say how far the strike call has been obeyed. ’ The situation at Paris 'railway stations was unchanged early to-day. Local trains were still almost completely strikebound, but express trains to the Channel ports and Germany were still running. Sixty per cent, of the railwaymen at Lille and 65 per cent, at Dijon voted against the strike, At Melun Poitiers, those favouring the strike were also in the minority There are 480.000 railwaymen in France, of whom 350.000 are in unions affiliated to the C.G.T.