FRENCH DECREES

Greymouth Evening Star, 12 August 1935, Page 5

FRENCH DECREES

PREMIER AND PREFECTS A SERIOUS WARNING [BY CABLE —PBESS ASSN. —COPYBIGHT.] PARIS, August 10. M. Laval, addressing the prefects at the conference which he called, regarding the application of the Decree laws, emphasised that the Prefects must tighten up their administrative methods. “The fate of the regime and the very life of the country are at stake,” he declared. He added that there had been a certain slackness, which could be no longer reconciled with present necessities. “You must have initiative,” he said. “You may return without uneasiness regarding the Government's intentions; but you may have every reason for. anxiety if you fail to do your duty.” Toulon passed a calm night. The special guards have been withdrawn from Toulon.

Riots are reported at Oran, and elsewhere in Algiers, where crowds against M.-. Laval’s decrees. ' ' '

FAVOURABLE RECEPTION

LONDON, August 9.

The Paris correspondent of “The Times” says that the new decrees represent the most ambitious economic legislation that any French Government has undertaken. They -will cover every aspect of the nation’s commercial life and will involve wholesale interference by the State mechanism in private commerce. Even his opponents are impressed by M. Laval’s immense effort at reorganisation. Though he may be accused of modelling his decrees on Fascism, actually

he aims at saving France from Fascism and bankruptcy alike. The public reception of the decrees, contrasting with the economies, seems favourable.

FUNERAL AT TOULON

(Rec. August 12, 1 p.m.) PARIS, August 11.

Draped with flaming red, two hearses conveying the victims of the riots traversed the crooked streets of Toulon. The funeral was attended by twenty thousand mourners, marshalled by workers wearing red brassards. No gendarmes were visible. The proceedings were perfectly orderly. The speakers at .the graveside condemned the rioting. The crowds quietly dispersed. Two participants in the Brest riots have succumbed to their injuries, including Pierre Cautron, whom Colonial Infantry Sergt. Eslan is charged with shooting, in addition to illegally carrying arms. A thousand civil servants met at Le Havre, and protested against. the wage-cuts and repressive police measures at Toulon and Brest.