BELGIAN STRIKES

Greymouth Evening Star, 18 June 1936, Page 2

BELGIAN STRIKES

ARMS FACTORY RAIDED. [BY CABLE —PBESS ASSN. COPYBIGHT.] BRUSSELS, June 17. The Liege strike took a grave turn when strikers attempted to raid an arms factory. The police drove them off and arrested 15. Gangs attempted to stop traffic in the city, and interfered with pedestrians, necessitating repeated police charges. The strikes are spreading elsewhere. All transport services with the exception of railways are threatened. SETTLEMENT ACHIEVED. (Recd. June 18, 2 p.m.) BRUSSELS, June 17. The Belgian strikes are nearing the capital, five hundred' metallurgical employees in the suburb of Ruysbroeck ceasing. The authorities announce that foreigners participating in the agitations will be expelled. Liege resembles a beleaguered city. Tram and taxi services have stopped. The use of bicycles is prohibited, in order to frustrate the speedy assemblage of strikers. Twelve thousand textile workers of Ghent quitted the looms. Factories in the Verviers area are stopping, and the heavy industries in Charleroi were brought to a standstill. A conference, under Premier Van Zeeland, between employers and trade unionists agreed upon a minimum wage, six paid holidays annually, but the forty-hour week is unsettled. LATER. The forty-hour week was subsequently conceded. A resumption is expected on June 22.

FRENCH DEVELOPMENTS. RIOTS AT MARSEILLES. (Recd. June 18, 2 p.m.) PARIS, June 17. The Senate passed Bills, permitting indemnities to civil servants, exempting ex-servicemen’s pensions from taxation, and granting paid holidays to workers. Metropolitan strikers still idle number fifty to sixty thousand. The situation is no better at Marseilles and worse at Lyons, St. diamond Angers, Larochelle, Le Havre, and Mulhouse. The Marseilles situation has taken an ugly turn, owing to the assumption of a political complexion, with the intervention of Jeunesses Patriotes and other Right organisations, numerous clashes occurring with the Front Populaire. Youths of the Right and Left, wearing tricolour cockades or red’ brassards, marched, shouting war cries, along. Cannebiere. Reinforcements joined both sides, and fighting began. Passers-by left the tramsand public vehicles and joined in, holding up all traffic. Gardes Mobiles separated the combatants, but the bands re-formed elsewhere, ( and resumed hostilities. The Right rioters took refuge in a disreputable gamblinghouse, six of whose habitues barred the gate and prepared to defend the building with revolvers. Members of the Front Populaire attacked the premises, and Gardes Mobiles intervened, but the crowd after an exchange of missiles, refused to disperse.

FIERY CROSS MANIFESTO. (Received June 18, 10.30 a.m.) PARIS, June 17. The Fiery Cross organisation, of which little has been heard during or since the elections, has re-entered the political field. The leader, Colonel de la Roque, has issued a manifesto, stating: Now that French unity is endangered, we declare ourselves a political body above parties or factions. It describes Germany as effervescent, Russia as revolutionary, amL Europe as unbalanced, and says: In face of tho immediate perils, the public weal must be protected. The manifesto does not indicat the nature of the action being taken.

GOVT. STOCKS. PARIS, June 17. It is rumoured that the Government is contemplating converting stocks on a three per cent, basis, consequently the Bourse marked up the three per cent Rentes.

IN MOROCCO. CASABLANCA, June 17. Sugar workers resumed, but the metal works and paint works are idle. The Council of National Defence approved Resident-General Pcyron’s establishment of an eight-hour day, and a minimum wage for native workers.