RAILWAY STRIKE IN FRANCE

Press, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 25205, 9 June 1947, Page 7

RAILWAY STRIKE IN FRANCE

Stoppage Almost Complete MANY TOURISTS STRANDED (N.Z. Press Association—Copyright) (Rec. 9.10 p.m.) PARIS, June 7. The railway strike is almost total throughout France. Some local services are continuing round provincial cities, but every hour brings news of more stoppages. The strike has spread to the administrative staff. The Government has promised to organise supplementary road transport, but the Federation of Road Transport Workers is not expected to run relief bus services. An official said: “We won’t act as strike breakers.” The French Prime Minister (Mr Ramadier), in a speech broadcast last night over the national network, asked all railway workers to stay on the job

while their new demands were being examined. He reminded them that it was generally understood the Government would adjust wages from July 1. British holiday-makers arriving outside the stations in Paris this morning found the gates closed. Many holidaymakers had intended to travel back to England. Bewildered travellers jammed the entrances to the stations, trying to find some means of transport out of the city. Tourists offered taxi-drivers high prices to take them to Tours or Amiens. One Paris newspaper reported that a man paid a taxi-driver £ 1000 to take him to Bordeaux. Workers in the city walked to their shops and offices, but many others were unable to get to work. The strike caused a shortage of taxis, which went to the suburbs and accepted twice their normal load of passengers on 'a strictly non-meter financial basis. Owners of long-distance buses to the Riviera in many cases quadrupled their prices. The hotels are overcrowded with tourists unable to get away. Several families last night slept in hotel lounges. Three hundred British tourists going to Switzerland have been stranded at Calais Since yesterday afternoon. They spent an uncomfortable night in a train alongside the Calais wharf.