FRENCH WORKERS

Southland Times, Issue 24887, 29 October 1942, Page 5

FRENCH WORKERS

THREAT OF STRIKE (Rec. 12.40 a.m.) LONDON, Oct. 28. The threat of a general strike in France has compelled Germany and Vichy to climb down over the compulsory deportation of French workers to Germany. The fear that the consequent paralysis of French transport would be disastrous if a second front were opened caused Germany to order Vichy to negotiate with the workers. The Daily Mail says it is the first time since the fall of France that the Germans have been forced to yield to an ultimatum. Trouble flared up at the Gnome-Rhone aero-engine works, where 700 out of 4000 workers were chosen for immediate transfer to Germany. Only 15 agreed to leave, upon which M. Laval ordered the discharge of the other 685. The effect was like an explosion: every worker flung down his tools. The authorities called out the Mobile Guards. ULTIMATUM TO VICHY

The chiefs of the three great underground organizations sent an ultimatum to Vichy that a general strike would begin on October 17 unless the conscription of workers for Germany was abandoned. The Germans threatened to court-martial the workers’ leaders, who retorted: “We are used to courtmartials. We will strike.” M. Laval was ordered to open negotiations with the union leaders, although unions have been declared illegal. After three days of the gravest tension M. Laval informed the Gestapo that he had failed and that the strike would go on if the workers were conscripted. The Germans put the enrolment date forward to October 22, then to October 30. The Vichy Cabinet held an acrimonious meeting which broke up without a decision being reached. The Germans finally backed down and deferred the registration date to October 31.

The Vichy radio, appealing today to French workers to go to Germany, said: “If you refuse, the line of demarcation between the two French zones, which is at present symbolic and temporary, will become real and lasting.” A Geneva report states that the police had to clear rioting crowds from the platforms when four trainloads of French workers left Paris for Germany on Tuesday. The workers arrived in escorted lorries. German infantry guarded the station approaches.