TROOPS STREAM IN

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26640, 10 December 1947, Page 5

TROOPS STREAM IN

General Return to Work Claimed FRENCH COALMINING AREAS New Zealand Press Association—Reuter—Copyright. Rec. 11 p.m. LONDON, Dec. 9. The Times Paris correspondent says reports from northern coalmining areas last night said troops tyere streaming in and spreading out everywhere. Already, it was claimed, their presence had been followed by a general return to work and normal conditions, particularly at Lille, Valenciennes, Douai and Bethune. The first application of the new anti-strike laws passed by the French Assembly last week was made last night when 18 strikers were arrested at Montpelier “ for trying to interfere with the right of others to work.” They were picketing a factory and bus depot. Well-informed quarters in Paris stated that the Government has set December 10 as the deadline for ending the strike wave. The Government thereafter intends taking sterner measures. M. Mayer has offered the strike leaders these terms: First, the strikers to be prosecuted only for breaches of the law; secondly, no payment to be made for strike time but the £3 2s 6d a month cost-of-living allowance, which the Government recently conceded, to be paid as from November 24,' to all who returned to work by December 12; thirdly, all family allowances to be paid to strikers as well as non-strikers; and, fourthly, the Government to consult trade unions about a plan for stabilising wages and prices. The Communist leader of the confederation, M. Benoit Frenchon, after meeting M. Mayer, said the confederation was not satisfied with the stabilisation proposals and had not been able to persuade the Government to abandon prosecutions arising from the strikes.