FLAG INCIDENTS

Evening Post, Volume CXXIII, Issue 104, 4 May 1937, Page 7

FLAG INCIDENTS

AT PARIS EXHIBITION

POLITICAL SIGNIFICANCE

LONDON. April 16.

The hoisting of political flags on buildings at the Paris Exhibition, which,. ■ began last weekend, was

thought to have been checked by an appeal to the common sense of workmen but now- it has assumed the dimensions of a tussle between certain elements of the Left and the Government. The struggle, though harmless or even farcical in its origin, threatens to cause serious embarrassment to the Premier of France, M. Blum. The Paris correspondent of 'The Times" says: "The tri-colour flags which, with emblems of the Front Populaire superimposed, were removed from the wooden doors of the exhibition last weekend, were flying again on Monday. They were removed by firemen in the evening, but on Tuesday morning they again were fluttering, intermittently in a fitful breeze. But the political wind which their appearance is raising is not intermittent, and unless the defiance which thfey present can soon be brought to an end, the flag incident may prove just one of those affairs which, though unimportant in themselves, destroy the prestige of an Administration, and are the first cause of its downfall.

"The flag incident itself might be unimportant if it did not coincide with a widespread feeling that all is not well with the Government, even in its relations with its own rank and file, that it is at the mercy of Left extremists, and that M. Blum himself is losing his grip.

"The restiveness of the exhibition workmen is due mainly to the men's fear of finding themselves unemployed when their present job ends. The Government would like to give assurances of further employment on public works, but it cannot do so, because of the "pause" announced by M. Blum and his promise to institute no new expenditure and issue no further loans this year, which will make a new programme of works impossible.