“ACTION WITH RESULTS”

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26631, 29 November 1947, Page 7

“ACTION WITH RESULTS”

French Troops Control Main Services MEASURES AGAINST STRIKERS Rec. 10 p.m. PARIS, Nov. 28. The French Assembly passed a confidence resolution by 322 to 186 votes. The Prime Minister, M. Robert Schuman, during the debate, announced that definite measures would be taken to-day to deal with the strikes. “ You will have proof within 24 hours that the Government intends to act energetically and efficaciously,” said the Premier. This announcement was made in answer to a Right Wing deputy who asked how the Government proposed to prevent the Communist Party from spreading anarchy through the country. It is reported that troops will occupy all central telephone exchanges and main railway stations in Paris to-day in the first of the emergency measures. The National Police Union in a statement to-day protested against the “ inadequacy ” of the Government’s wage proposals but said that the police would continue to assure public order. .

Tension in Paris has reached the highest points since France's pending liberation from the Germans, as fears of a general strike spread throughout gloom-shrouded France. Police on point duty on roads leading to Paris are carrying loaded sub-macnine guns, and the authorities are prepared for trouble in northern mining areas. Food supplies are now seriously threatened in Paris and other big towns, and aeroplanes have been used to fly vegetables to the capital. A fleet of army lorries delivered milk in the cPy. Aeroplanes arrived from Croydon Airport, London, to pick up Britons stranded in Paris., The Communist leader, M.. Maurice Thorez, is hurrying back to France from a visit to Moscow to supervise Communist tactics in the crisis. The Communist leader of the Italian trade unions, Giuseppo de Vittorio, is also en route to Paris to co-ordinate the French and Italian strikes. D’Esfourneaux. France’s official executioner. has joined the strike, refusing to guillotine eight condemned men unless lhe receives higher pay, and a bonus for every head severed. Someone hung four iron bars on overhead power lines near a suburban railway station, causing a short circuit when the first train passed the spot. Nobody was injured. The police dispersed about 500 strikers who tried to force a way into another suburban station, and at Vitry station detained temporarily six men who molested non-striking workers. Two trade federations, one of whicn is known to have 900,000 adherents, dissociated themselves from the strike movement, saying they accepted the ' offer of the Prime Minister, M. Robert Schumann, as the first step towards satisfying the workers’ demands. Communist-controlled unions in Paris have formed a National Central Strike Committee, which, the British United Press correspondent says, may be “ a general staff ” which the Communists hope will completely paralyse the country. The committee was formed at the headauarters of the C.G.T.. which issued a communique saying the committee’s task would be “to ensure that a sufficient effort was made to defend the strike in urban centres and to defend the basic demands.” The communiaUe added that the efforts of the non-Communist minority of C.G.T. to persuade the strikers to return to their jobs were “ base reason to the working class,” and called on all French workers to refuse to participate in a secret strike ballot, as the non-Communists advocated.

The Public Services Assocaition, with a membership of more than 2,000,000, voted against immediate strike. Special rations to expectant mothers have been suspended in the Seine Department because of the strike. Paris barbers to-night, through. their union, offered to cut the hair of any striker in the Paris region free of charge. The Government would use force only as a last resort in dealing with the strikes, in which 2,000,000 men are now involved, M. Schuman told the Assembly to-day. “ We shall ensure the running of services indispensable to the life of the nation by all the means at our disposal We shall punish all acts of sabotage, and act by persuasion first and by authority afterwards.” He said the decision to raise the basic wage was only part of the Qovernmnet’s programme. Other measures would follow. M. Schuman added that strikes were becoming the habitual method of puttiug forward claims. Any country continuing on these lines would fall into anarchy. A Government which allowed this to happen was not worthy of the name. ...... . The Paris correspondent of the Associated Press says the Communist political bureau directed the Communist deputies in the Assembly to attack M. Schuman’s strike settlement offer as “an insult to the misery of the workers.” The bureau communique appealed to “all workers, republicans, and patriots to manifest solidarity with the strikers and to multiply and develop committees to support the strikers.” Meanwhile the strike began to take effect on communications when workers stopped at some. Paris central telephone exchanges, cutting off the Senate, the Palace of Justice, and the City Hall. The Russian Government has sent France a Note of protest requesting the French authorities to “ bring without delay to the Russian Embassy in Paris” 19 Russian citizens whom the French authorities arrested a few days ago. The 19 included several members of a group called the “ Union of Soviet Citizens,” whom the Minister of the Interior, M. Jules 1 Moch, charged with interference in French affairs during the current labour troubles. The French security police in Nice have ordered the Russian, General Vladimir Postovsky, to leave France. General Postovsky has been directing the repatriation of Russians who want to return to the Soviet Union.