POLICE PROBLEM.

Auckland Star, Volume LXV, Issue 32, 7 February 1934, Page 7

POLICE PROBLEM.

RIOT PRECAUTIONS. Fears of Opposing Factions Coming to Grips. DRASTIC ORDERS ISSUED. (United P.A.—Electric Telegraph—Copyright) (Received 11 a.m.) PARIS, February 6.

The city is prepared for riots. Iron grilles have been stripped, and all tables and chairs outside cafes, which are favourite weapons for rioters, have been removed by the police. Five different mobs, namely, the exSoldiers' Union, the League of Young Patriots, the Eoyalists, Fascists, and Communists, are expected to converge on the Chamber of Deputies. The Socialist party has issued a mobilisation order calling on all Socialists to report to-night at their local party offices. The chief difficulty of the police will not be the protection of Parliament as much as the prevention of the rival mobs from clashing. M. Daladier, Prime Minister, in an appeal to Parisians to remain calm, says there has been no movement of troops. M. Chiappe's successor, M. Sibour, Prefect of Police, admits that "the situation is worrying, and Paris is far from calm." M. Sibour is personally in charge of 14,000 members of the Republican Guard and the Garde Mobile police, which he hopes will be sufficient to maintain order. . Civil aeroplanes, with the exception of commercial air services, have been prohibited flying over Paris, and the troops in the* Paris garrison have been confined to barracks to prevent their mingling with the crowd. The police and military received drastic instructions for the preservation of order. A surprising development is the reinstatement of M. Fabre at the Comedie Francaise. It is stated that M. Thome is being provided with a diplomatic post. M. Chiappe took a tearful Tarewell of the Prefecture, and moved with his wife into private apartments.

Guards Charge Rioters. An earlier report stated that 4000 demonstrators reached the offices of the Ministry of the Interior late last evening. Republican Guards charged repeatedly and scattered the crowds, which later reformed and marched past the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. They had several clashes with the police. A Paris deputy, M. Sciapini, and two policemen were injured and sent to hospital. Ten people were arrested. Another account, of the affair states that the demonstrators comprised exsoldiers, Royalists and students. They bore banner's and chanted the Marseillaise. When they reached the Ministerial quarter troopers of, the mounted Kepublican Guard drew their swords, charged and scattered the demonstrators. Some of the rioters threw handfuls of sand in the horses' eves.

Four hundred demonstrators, headed by M. Sciapini, who is blind, broke the barricades and reached the barred doors of the Ministry of the Interior before they were dispersed. M. Sciapini was trampled down.