RIOTING IN PARIS

Press, Volume XCVI, Issue 28445, 27 November 1957, Page 15

RIOTING IN PARIS

Anti-British Outbreak PARIS, Sept. 25. Steel-helmeted riot police tonight swooped among rush-hour crowds in the Place de la Concorde, breaking up and arresting groups of demonstrators shouting “Macmillan to the gallows” and “Americans, go home!” The Paris police ringed both the British and American Embassiesl after there had been threats of demonstrations by a new revolu-: tionary patriotic party. The police in the Place de la Concorde—the; American Embassy is there—j pounced after a red Very light had soared into the skp-appar-ently a signal for the demonstrations to start. Those arrested, mostly youths, were bundled into vans. Mr Jean Baptiste Biaggi. an extreme Right-wing lawyer who formed the new party, said earlier that his party would demonstrate at 6 p.m. “African Munich” “Not content with sending arms to the Algerian rebels through (President) Bourguiba (of Tun-! isia),” he said, “Macmillan is l coming to Paris to dictate orders directly to our Government. We do not want France to play the part of Czechoslovakia in the African Munich which is being prepared for her.” At 6.20 o'clock, two French youths waved a banner near the American Embassy with an inscription reading “Glory to the French Army wherever it fights. —The Young Nation Movement.” Almost simultaneously about 100 demonstrators began shouting “Long live French Algeria!” The police charged them with drawn batons, and some of the demonstrators were carried away. Trouble flared up again 10 minutes later at the corner of the French Admiralty in the Place de la Concorde. A group of youths started chanting the “Marseillaise” and shouting “Algeria is French—Algeria is French!” Club-wielding police again charged, making further arrests. Within a matter of minutes the normally crowded square was almost deserted except for the police.

Then a fresh group of demonstrators. shouting “Macmillan to the gallows” and “Americans, go home” appeared. The police made another baton charge, and quickly dispersed them. A tear gas bomb, apparently dropped by one of the charging Police, fell at the base of the obelisk, in the middle of the square, emitting clouds of fumes. Three carloads of riot reinforcements then converged on the trouble spot and took up action stations at strategic points, directed by shouting police officers. A double row of blue uniformed police > cordoned off the roads leading to the American Embassy and the British Embassy nearby.

Though there was “no conciliation’’ last night on the Tunisian arms controversy, a French spokesman said, there was “complete accord” between France and Britain on the aims of Western interdependence advanced in the declaration of the recent Mac-millan-Eisenhower talks in Washington. Reports of a British-American plan for a nuclear monopoly in the Atlantic Treaty Organisation, coming on the heels of the Tunisian arms delivery, heightened French resentment and suspicion over the intentions of its major allies. Mr Macmillan assured his French colleague that these suggestions were completely groundless. In a statement on his arrival in Paris, Mr Macmillan said the issues at stake were “too grave for misunderstandings even among friends.” He said Britain was determined to maintain her close alliance with France. “We are in the same boat. Don’t let us or anyone else try to rock it.” French newspapers made caustic comments on the MacmillanGaillard talks and held out little hope that the differences will be solved when the discussions end today. The two Prime Ministers were a favourite subject for cartoonists, who depicted them groping in a “pea-souper” fog and peering through spectacles labelled “Atlantic” and saying the view was not clear.