LABOUR SERVICE IN FRANCE

Press, Volume LXXVIII, Issue 23743, 15 September 1942, Page 5

LABOUR SERVICE IN FRANCE

Men and Women Conscripted NEW LAW IMPOSED BY LAVAL (N.Z. Press Association—Copyright.) (Rec, U p.m.) LONDON. Sept. 14. Under pressure, Laval has introduced a new law conscripting all men between 18 and 50, and unmarried women between 21 and 35, “for work necessary in the national interest.” British and other foreign residents are also affected. According to the German Official News Agency, .those conscripted will be liable for compulsory labour service. This new order will mean that every Frenchman employed in industry must prove that he is doing work useful to the State. The effect of the order means that France requires every man and woman to meet commitments. Heavy fines and penalties are provided for any breach of the new law and there are indications that stricter measures might be necessary. The correspondent of the “Daily Telegraph" on the Ifrench frontier says; “The new law is the most drastic ever passed in France. It is the result of the Germans’ failure to induce French workers to go to German factories. Any person whose work is not considered ‘useful’ can be transferred to other employment. Employers are forbidden to engage workers except through the Government. Labour service must also undertake the form of work gangs, presumably for work in Germany. Penalties for infringement are five years’ imprisonment and a fine of £ls, both doubled for a second offence.” Workers in France, by the frustration of Hitler’s plan to entice 350,000 of tfieir number to work in Germany, have created a shortage of labour for the German war machine, which in the weeks to come may be a major factor in the battle for Russia. This point was made in a broadcast by M. Andre Philip, National Commissioner for Labour and for the Interior for Fighting France. Everything was tried to get the 350.000 Frenchmen to go to Germany, said M. Philip, but most of them preferred misery and destitution rather than to submit to alien rule, and Vichy succeeded in getting only 30,000 workers, mostly labourers, women ana foreigners for German industry. Hitler was furious, said M. Philip, and was attempting to use force, but M. Philip contended that compulsion wouK come too late, for the_ Russian winter began in a month’s time, _ and now, at the time of the decisive assault on the Russian front, the German plan was short of 300.000 men.