“SHAPE OF INSURRECTION"

Greymouth Evening Star, 11 October 1948, Page 5

“SHAPE OF INSURRECTION"

The strike wave was assuming the shape of an insurrection and the Government would take the necessary steps to stop agitation, said the Prime Minister of France '.(Dr ~Henri Queuille) in a broadcast. The Government would not tolerate such threats against the regime of the Republic, because the Constitution did not allow it, said Dr Queuille.

It waq inadmissible that the workers should be asked to oppose the generous ’aid given by the United States. It was also inadmissible that the right to strike should be used as a means of exerting pressure on French foreign policy.

What Strike is Costing

Dr Queuille said that the miners’ strike was costing France 160,000 tons of coal daily, and the stoppage at the coking plants would mean their virtual destruction, causing a loss of £11,500,000. “The strike weapon must not stab at the heart of the country, depriving it of the production essential to its existence,” said Dr Queuille. Agency correspondents report that the Communist-led General Confederation of Labour has called a general protest strike in the Longwy area, in northern France, where troops and striking miners clashed last night. Strike ballots are being organised at railway centres throughout the country, with the possibility of a general railway strike. An infantry regiment has been rushed to the riot area in the Lorraine coalfields, where a striker was killed in a clash with police on Friday. Police with batons and tear-gas attacked demonstrators when they tried to approach the Nancy railway station.

The 24-hour strike by seamen ended this morning, but the General Confederation of Labour, in a blow at key sections of France’s economy, has called a 24-hour strike of port and dock workers for Wednesday. The Paris taxi-drivers have remained off duty. Outlook Black “The outlook for a settlement of the nation-wide _ French miners’ strike, in its"fffth day bn Friday, was, if anything, blacker than ever,” re-

ported the Paris correspondent of The Times.

“The coking ovens in the industrial north have become the focal point of the (dispute, and the maintenance of their fires a matter of national importance. Coke ovens are normally kept at a temperature of 1100 degrees centigrade. The temperature falls about 40 degrees a day when the ovens cease to be fed with coal. The critical temperature, below which coqling causes serious damage, is 700 degrees, and the temperature has already fallen to about 800 -degrees. The Government has issued an order requisitioning workers to tend the ovens.” . 1

Reuter’s Paris correspondent says that the French Minister of Labour (Mr Daniel Mayer) is considering the result of talks which he had Qh Friday with France’s eight police superprefects on further measures Xtq be taken if the strikes spread..