STRIKEBOUND CITY

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26634, 3 December 1947, Page 5

STRIKEBOUND CITY

Parisian Transport and Electricity Services Halted

NEW COMMUNIST THREAT

Rec. 11.45 p.m. LONDON, Dec. 2 Gas and electricity workers joined the French strikes yesterday and as dusk fell large areas of Paris were without street and house lighting. Gas pressure, according to the Paris correspondent of the Daily Mail, has reached the “ danger level,” and the water pressure has fallen off rapidly because several pumping stations are strike-bound. Cinemas, theatres and night clubs have been ordered to close until further notice to conserve available electricity.

The Paris metro (underground railway) has also stopped although the Paris correspondent of The. Times points out that the workers themselves are not on strike. Communist leaders threaten to call out bus workers to-day, leaving Paris without any kind of transport except private vehicles. Bread supplies are so low that some bakers are rationing customers to one slice daily. Postmen, who are rarely seen, are each escorted by four or five gefidarmes and. troops are guarding all radio stations.

The Paris correspondent of the Daily Telegraph declares that the strike situation has generally become worse. In some places men returned to work yesterday but came out in others, and more than 2.000,000 are still on strike. Guards Use Tear Gas Two thousand strikers seized the railway station at Brieve, in Southern France. Republican guards used tear gas, but failed to eject the demonstrators and returned to barracks.

Troops and mobile guards used tear gas to disperse mob strikers marching \ on an ironworks in Paris in an attempt to make the workers there leave their jobs. The marching strikers met a solid cordon of guards and several were injured in clashes which followed. They persisted until the tear gas forced them to withdraw. Strikers in Longwy in Northern France used a lorry to break through a police cordon protecting non-strik-ing workers in a metal works, but police reinforcements ejected them. New outbreaks of violence between the police and strikers occurred throughout the France, as the bitter debate in the National Assembly on the Government's anti-strike legislation entered its fourth day The biggest act of sabotage since the beginning of the strike occurred 20 miles from Lyons, where torn-up lines caused the engine of the Lyons express to hurtle into a ravine. The engine crew jumped clear, and the passengers escaped with slight injuries. The carriages turred over, but did not follow the engine into the ravine. Fighting in Coal Mines

Fighting broke out in the 'coal mines in Northern France when the police evicted strike pickets and when the miners attempted to defy the pickets and resume work. The spokesman for the Ministry of the Interior said the strikers armed themselves with cudgels and were reinforced by North Africans carrying knives. Several workers were wounded. Armed troops are guarding the French national radio headquarters and affiliated premises in Paris, “to prevent unauthorised entries.” New strikes reported from South France include tramway, gas, electricity, municipal and cinema workers, road transport drivers, and postal and telephone officials in Nice, and also electricity workers in Marseilles. Strikers derailed a goods train near Bordeaux by cutting the rails. The train overturned, but no one was injured.

Hostility in Parliament The French Parliament resumed the discussion of M. Schuman’s Antistrike Bill in an atmosphere charged with tense hostilities between Communists and Right Wing deputies. The Communists conducted delaying tactics when M. Duclos. the Communist group leader, asked for a vote on whether the debate was being held on November 30 or December 1. He pointed out that the parliamentary clocks had stopped at midnight on November 29; therefore the meeting was taking place yesterday. “You are trying to stop the course of history, he shouted. Deputies exchanged hot words and banged desks, and the Assembly president had difficulty in maintaining order. . . , The debate reached new heights oi tumult and confusion when the Communist deputy, Francois Billoux, said he had written to Marshal Petain n 1940 offering to denounce the anticommunist policies of M. Daladier and M Reynaud. . M Daladier replied: ‘ The situation to-day is the same as in September, 1939. The order to sabotage the Marshall plan has been issued in Moscow. The deputies continued to shout insults at each other, pounded desk lids, and stamped their feet. The Communist benches became so noisy with catcalls and shouts that they interrupted their own speakers. The Assembly adjourned at mid-day for two hours after voting to treat the Anti sabotage Bill as a matter of urgency. When the Assembly reconvened this afternoon it passed the second of the three crisis measures by 400 votes to 184 (There are 184 Communist deputies in the Assembly.) The second measure empowers the Government to inflict severe penalties on saboteurs and people fomenting strikes- /

Members Come to Blows Reuter’s correspondent says the Socialist and Communist members of the Upper House exchanged blows during the debate on , the Government’s anti-strike measures. The fight developed after the Communist members had accused the Prime Minister, M. Schuman, of being a German officer in 1914. The police had to help to restore order. The National Assembly broke up once again in an unproar when M Kerriot. after opening the evening session, called for the suspension of a Communist deputy on a charge that, he incited rebellion. The deputy had declared that soldiers would not obey the Government, and the Communists responding began a song extolling the virtues of a soldier who sided with the strikers. The Assembly carried M Herriot’s motion in favour of disciplinary action, and the Communists’ cries of protest became so vociferous that M. Herriot ordered an adjournment until later in the night. When the Assembly resumed, the suspended Communist deputy mounted the rostrum and defied M. Herriot’s order to leave. Applauding Communist deputies surrounded him and cheered when he said the Assembly’s suspension decision was illegal. M. Herriot then again adjourned the Assembly and the Communists remained behind,’ singing "The Marseillaise.” The Associated Press reports that a Communist spokesman said that the Communist deputies intended to remain in the Chamber all night so the Assembly could not meet without them.