SMUGGLERS ACTIVE

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22133, 23 September 1946, Page 5

SMUGGLERS ACTIVE

FRENCH J3ORDERS OFFICIALS’ STRIKE SPREAD CAUSES ANXIETY (9 a.m.) LONDON, Sept. 22. Smugglers yesterday made fortunes in France because there was no one to hinder them as a result of the Customs officials' strike. The Sunday Express’ correspondent in Paris reports that smugglers poured across the French frontiers into Belgium, Switzerland, Italy and Spain and brought back food, wine and clothes which cannot be bought in France and sold them to the highest biddersTobacco alone worth £IO,OOO was brought in from Belgium. The striking Customs officials stood by smoking on France’s frontiers watching housewives bargaining for the smuggled goods.

It is estimated that the strike is costing the French Treasury £IOO,OOO a day. Reuter’s correspondent in Paris says that the French policemen's trade union announced that it intended on Wednesday to join the strike and had already appealed to its members not to act as strike-breakers.

Bank and stock exchange employees in northern France have' decided to strike to-morrow for higher wages. The general strike situation is causing the Government grave anxiety. One hundred thousand French civil servants employed by the Treasury went on strike on Thursday in support of a demand for temporary pay increases pending a general revision of salaries, says Reuter’s correspondent in Paris.

The French Assembly, by 537 votes to 12, approved the declaration of the Prime Minister, M. Bidault, that the Government could not consent to further wage increases for fear of imperilly France. M. Bidault. appealed to the workers as patriots to stay at work, or if striking, to return to work-

Reuter’s correspondent in Paris says it is officially announced that the Cabinet has refused to grant the strikers’ claims desiptc the Assembly’s earlier resolution to award them a temporary bonus.

Border points are overflowing with travellers in varying stages of anger, indignation and distress because no customs officials are available to examine their luggage and check visas. Air travellers passed through the metropolitan airports unhindered, but people entering by car and train had their baggage impounded, presumably to await the return of someone to examine it. Some went on without their baggage and others stayed and fumed.