SCENES IN FRANCE.

Rangitikei Advocate and Manawatu Argus, Volume XXXII, Issue 8844, 21 June 1907, Page 2

SCENES IN FRANCE.

Almost a Civil War. Press Association —Copyright. Paris, June 20. Serious rioting occurred at Narbonno at night. A crowd which consisted o£ a party of peasants emptied a can of paraffin over the door of a wine manufacturer and attempted to ignite it but wore repulsed by soldiers stationed in the courtyard. The demonstrators tried to enter through the gardens and the infantry charged repeatedly. It was an hour and a half before they succeeded in dispersing the rioters. Some gendarmes were wounded. Troops at Montpelier scattered a crowd which collected outside the prison cheering M. Perroul. M. Clcmenceau’s latest despatches show that tranquility in the south has been restored. A crowd at Narbonno surrounding M. Ferroul’s carriage hissed the troops ; escorting him to the station. Thereupon the infanrry fixed bayonets and the cavalry dispersed the demonstrators. ■ The latter ’throw stones injuring the colonel. ; The Cause of the Trouble. ■ London, Juno 20. M. Yves Guyot, in a letter to the Times, states that the four department concerned in the wine crisis ’ represent 8% per cent of the popula- : tiou of Franco and their vineyards 1 arc only one -fifth of the surface of ! the four departments. Their output is 30 per cent of the total quantity of wine produced in Franco and 15 per ■ cent of the total value. The cause : of the crisis is manifest. Affcr the • phylloxera scare Italian wY-w were 1 prohibited and Spanish hear;ta*"vl ! and the winegrowers in the four !'•• I partmehts, imagining they com- ■ niaudod the homo market, planted a vine called Aramou, which yielded nmoli fruit juice and very little alcohol, with the result that the wine j will not keep and cannot he transported. Thou the winegrowers, wislii iug to strengthen the wine, added c sugar to the vintage as it changes into alcohol and next added water, i They p.cviously had too much wine i too feeble in quality and they made 3 more wine of worse quality. The 3 wine trade refused to purchase it and t the winegrowers tried to conduct the 3 trade themselves and wore compelled ' to seek isolated customers and iu- > enrrod losses.

WoniGii on the Warpath

Paris, June 20. M. Albert escaped disguised as a woman.

A fresh Winegrowers’ Committee replaced the arrested men. When M. Forroul was arrested at Narbomie the military were obstructed by a large body of women armed with pitchforks, the leader wearing a rod cap and carrying a big pistol. " Ferronl appeared at a window, in nightcap and pyjamas, and urged his bodyguard to remain calm, declaring, “I surrender; this is the proudest day of my life; it needed 10,000 soldiers to arrest me."