MORE TROOPS CALLED UP

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26633, 2 December 1947, Page 5

MORE TROOPS CALLED UP

French Government’s Effort To Break Strike HEATED ASSEMBLY DEBATE

Rec. 11.30 p.m. LONDON, Dec. 1. The French Government formulates orders to-day for recalling 80,000 troops to fight the strikes following the Assembly’s approval of the first article of the anti-strike measures. The troops will come under the orders of the Ministry of the Interior and not the Ministry of Defence as were the 200,000 troops recalled to the army proper last week.

Negotiations between the Government and the Confederation of Labour took place on the night of November 30, but broke down. The railways, shipping, mines, and the'metal industries are still tied up by 2,000,000 strikers, but no further spread of the strike took place at the week-end. «

The Government agreed to defer until to-morrow discussion on the provisions of the Bill dealing with punishments for fomenting strikes or molesting non-strikers, and the Assembly, after a 35-hour sitting, adopted the proposal of the Premier, M. Robert Schuman, to adjourn until to-morrow morning. M. Schuman thanked the Assembly and promised the new law would be used in cases of necessity only. “ The Government intends to respect the rights and liberties of all labour organisations,” said M. Schuman.

The National Strike Committee of the Confederation of > Labour announced that it intended to keep the strike going and “ intensify resolute action.” The • Government is reported to be quietly strengthening the security forces generally. Nearly 100 strikers and 28 police were injured in the Loire district on the night of November 29 when Com-munist-led demonstrators attempted to besiege the St. Etienne Prefecture of Police. Militiamen hurled tear gas bombs at the demonstrators, who retaliated with paving stones and lead pipes. Four hand grenades were .thrown at the Communist Party headquarters in St. Brieuc, damaging the building. The clock had been stopped and the calendar still read “November 29” when the National Assembly resumed its marathon session this evening, says the British United Press correspondent. The. Communists slammed desk tops, shouted, booed, and yelled insults as the Assembly continued discussion of legislative procedure before beginning on the actual Anti-strike Bill. The Communists, in a stonewalling move, had proposed 320 amendments to the Bill. The Minister of the Interior, M. Juls Moch, in the evening moved that the Communist amendments be rejected en bloc. This precipitated stormy scenes leading to a 15-minute adjournment to calm things down; then on a secret vote M. Moch's proposal was adopted by 397 votes to 184 with 80 abstentions. When the deputies reached Article 1 of the Bill the Assembly had been sitting 32£ hours.

One Socialist Minister told the Associated Press correspondent that a split developed in the Socialist Party over the Bill. M. Moch led the .pro-Government group and the Labour Minister, M. Daniel Mayer and the party secretary, M. Mollet, led the opposition. M. Mollet, it is reported, told his colleagues: “We don’t want the workers’ blood on our hands.” No More Newsprint

The Government has decided to suspend newsprint supplies to the official Communist Party newspaper, L’Humanite. The authorities also suppressed a twice-weekly broadcast by the French organisation called Friends of the Soviet Union because it has been officially ruled as anti-French propaganda. The police ordered all-night clubs and places of entertainment to close at midnight to avoid early-morning crowds which might get involved in the disorders.

The police reported sabotage on railway lines at Paris and Lille. A Paris suburban line was cut in four places, and the telephone wires beside the line were cut. Bordeaux dockers, whose strike immobilised 18 ships, have decided to resume. Sabotage is believed to have caused the derailment of the Geneva-Paris express at Culoz last night. The goods van was destroyed. Clashes With Police

Further clashes between the police and strikers are reported in various parts of the city. The police after a 90-minute violent struggle repulsed over 100 strikers Who forced an entry into the Montmartre telephone exchange. The police also intervened when railway saboteurs attempted to place detonators on the railway lines. The police forcibly ejected from two factories strikers who resisted with bricks and firebrands.. They made eight arrests. The police to-day seized editions of four Communist papers. One was the Marseilles paper Rouge Midi, which carried a headline: “They Want to Assassinate the Republic.” Two other papers were,in Toulouse and one in Bordeaux.

Troops and reinforcements and light tanks continue to arrive throughout the day in Marseilles. Storemen who had flour in Marseilles to guarantee essential food supplies failed to respond to the local civilian mobilisation order and were arrested. Most of them® immediately decided to return to work and the police released them. Police in Paris arrested 52 people at Gare de Lyon. M. Moch during the debate told the Assembly that port workers at Bordeaux and Le Havre had decided to work. The Central Strike Committee issued a night communique announcing determination to continue the struggle “until it has achieved its essential demands, which include the constitutional liberties.”