BELGIAN STRIKES SPREADING

Press, Volume LXXII, Issue 21811, 17 June 1936, Page 11

BELGIAN STRIKES SPREADING

Special Committee Constituted | | POLICE FIRED ON IN CLASH (UNITED PRESS ASSOCIATION—COPTEIGHT.J | (Received June 16, 7-5 p.m.) | BRUSSELS, June 15. j A committee of public order under the presidency of the Prime “Minister (M. Paul van Zeeland) has been constituted to deal with the strikes, which are rapidly extending. A coal strike involving 110,000 1 men has become general. The steel j workers have decided to call a gen- 1 eral strike for noon. > Strikers stopped the trams running in Liege. The newspaper LTndependence j Beige” estimates that the strikers , number 170,000. At Liege mounted gendarmes charged 500 strikers with drawn | sabres, after the strikers, singing the | “Internationale,” had twice at- j tempted to storm a bazaar under the j leadership of the giant communist ] deputy M. Lahaut, to prevent the j shopgirls from working. | A clash occurred at St. Walburge, ; where the Commissioner of Police | 1 and a gendarme were knocked down | and trampled on. ■ The strikers attempted to stop the j | trains at Rocourt. Shots were fired i | and three policemen were wounded. | | The strike has extended to the \ ; metallurgical works in the province | j of Hainault. ' VIRTUALLY ENDED j | “STAY-IN” STRIKES IN FRANCE : LONDON, June 15. | I The Paris correspondent of “The 1 Times” says that the stay-in strikes j have virtually ended. The insur- | ance clerks are expected to resume i I to-morrow. The majority of the de- j partment stores are still occupied, i i but the end is believed to be in j I sight. _ ‘ . I j The .position in the provinces is j iimnroving with equal rapidity. ■ Four thousand dock workers and ' watermen are still idle in Paris, and ■ those at Bordeaux and Dunkirk have not resumed.