GIANT BARRAGE.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIV, Issue 233, 3 October 1933, Page 5

GIANT BARRAGE.

BATTLE OF BARGES.

RIVER OISE BLOCKADE. AIR RECONNAISSANCE. In the last week of August the French bargees who were on strike to secure an improvement in working conditions made a master move in their "war" with the authorities. They hauled some 200 barges down the River Oise, and established a monster barrage.

In this barrage there were 19 rows of barges. Each row stretched from bank to bank, and each vessel was secured to its neighbour by cable. The river was completely blocked. One afternoon a. military aeroplane from Le Bourget flew over the river to take photographs. These were used to draw up a plan of campaign.

The strikers' action was taken following the breaking up of the triple barrage across the Seine itself. That preliminary engagement proved that strong forces of mobile guards, supported by "artillery fire" in the form of showers of water from hosepipes, could not be resisted for long* The bargees saw that if the 24 barges which they had established in the Oise were attacked independently they would soon be capturcd and removed.

They therefore decided to pool their forces and set up a really effective barrier at Eragny. Throughout the night the men and their wives laboured together on the two paths of the Oise to carry out this project.

When day b'-oke the authorities were so surprised that they decided to postpone any action until they had greater forces at their command. The bargees at Bheims were persuaded to remove the barrage, which made it impossible to reach that city by water. Strikers-Beaten by Cold Water.

' A regular battle took place on the Seine early in the morning between the striking bargees and a mixed force of iduejfckets and police. The Jfcvgy; emr

ployed boarding tactics and "artillery," but the guns were merely the nozzles of hosepipes, and the casualties were nil. After being repulsed several times the forces of the State won the action and the drenched bargees were ordered to their cabins as prisoners to change their clothes.

During a lull in the proceedings the sailors who had been sent by the Government were surprised by the sudden blocking of the river by barges, which the canal men placed from bank to bank. As the Seine is more important than the Oise, it was decided at two o'clock in the morning to make a coun-ter-attack, with sailors, gendarmes and mobile guards, reinforced by 300 more police. The Prefect of the Seine arrived with a special commissioner of police from Versailles, wearing his insignia of office —a sasli —and asked the bargees to desist, pointing out the dangers of their folly not only to themselves, but to other workers whose bread depended on them. A Boarding Party. All this proved fruitless, however, for his voice was drowned by the strikers shouting their demands. The special commissioner then stepped forward and gave the usual warning three times, but to no effect. Orders were then given to the sailors to haul a barge full of gendarmes towards the barrier of barges, so that they could be boarded." The strikers, however, countered this manoeuvre by keeping the boarders off with p6les.

The Prefect, not wishing to employ force, then sent for a delegation of strikers, but his propositions were again rejected. The men preferred to sink tlicfr barges in the river sooner than give up their strategic position, the strikers stated; Tugboats then moved up to break the barrage. The bargees put up a stout resistance, but were a little awed when they saw the muzzles of guns mounted in the bows of the tugs. Great was their surprise and discomfiture when these "guns" began to play cold water upon them with considerable force.

This quenched the fighting ardour of the strikers, who quickly surrendered. The striking bargees, 30 of whom were arrested, declared that they were acting' under orders from the Communist. /Union. —