FRENCH LABOUR CRISIS

Auckland Star, Volume L, Issue 148, 23 June 1919, Page 5

FRENCH LABOUR CRISIS

PEAR OF COAL FAMINE. | REVOLUTIONARY RISING jj ARREST OF RINGLEADERS. (I (By Cable.—rress Association.—Copyright.) PARIS, June 12—Delayed. The French coal strike threatens to w create a coal famine. The critical turn P is due to the Chamber of Deputies refus- i a: ing the Eiprltt Hours Bill, which the \ti Millers' Federation approved. tl The General Labour Confederation announces a meeting of delegates repre- j w senting the trades unions of Belgium, tl France, Britain, and Italy, with the g, object of promoting an international movement. It is believed that this is the prelude to a general strike, supported . internationally in order to solve the *' ! economic question. There are, however, probably two movements, the one | v national and the other international, one ( n economic, the other political, so that a j resurrection of the internationale on a & revolutionary basis is threatened. The extreme Socialists still hope to *' turn the Paris movement in the direction ° of a social revolution in the interests of a the German Bolsheviks, but the heads of the Labour movement have succeeded thus far in keeping within the trade union or economic limits. The Government is firm, and will not allow the situation to get out of hand. The army certainly does not sympathise with a revolutionary movement which might j enable the enemy to benefit. — (A. and N.Z. Cable.) v The Government has ordered the arrest of 84 strike leaders advocating a < country-wide revolutionary rising. The « plot was hatched in, and largely financed £ from, a Bolshevik centre in Chicago. The American secret service is co-operating ' in tracing the plotters.—(''Times.")