FRENCH UNREST.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVI, Issue 189, 12 August 1935, Page 7

FRENCH UNREST.

PRESIDENT FOR PEACE

Orderly Crowds at Funeral of

Riot Victims.

FATE OF REGIME THREATENED (United P.A.—Electric Telegraph—Copyright) (Received 12.30 p.m.) LONDON, August 11. Draped in flaming red, two hearses conveying the victims of the recent riots traversed the crooked streets of Toulon attended by 20,000 mourners marshalled by workers wearing red brassards. No gendarmes were visible, and the proceedings Averc carried out with perfect order. Speakers at the graveside condemned rioting. The crowds quietly dispersed. Two participants of the Brest riots succumbed to their injuries, including Pierre Gautron, in connection with whose death a colonial infantryman, Sergeant Eslan, is charged with shooting in addition to illegally carrying arms. A thousand civil servants met at Le Havre and protested against wage cuts and repressive police measures at Toulon ! and Brest. M. Lebrun, President of France, at the unveiling of a memorial at Metz, commemorating both French and German war dead, appealed for peace and unity in France and abroad. Enforcing New Decrees. A message from Paris says the Prime Minister, M. Laval, addressing a meeting of prefects summoned by him to a conference regarding the application of the new decree laws, emphasised that they must tighten up their administrative methods. "The fate of the regime and the very life of the country are at stake," declared M. Laval. "There has been a certain slackness which cannot be reconciled with the present necessities. "You must have initiative. You may return to your districts without uneasiness as to the Government's intentions, but you may have every reason for anxiety if you fail to do your duty." Riots are reported to have occurred at Oran and elsewhere in Algiers, where crowds demonstrated against M. Laval's decrees.