SUBSIDIES AS REMEDY FOR WAGE-PRICE CRISIS IN FRANCE

Grey River Argus, 12 October 1949, Page 5

SUBSIDIES AS REMEDY FOR WAGE-PRICE CRISIS IN FRANCE

PARIS, October 10.

Further attempts to form a new French Government will be made tomorrow, it was officially announced to-night after M. Jules Moch, the Socialist leader, had reported to President Auriol that the three-day consultations had resulted in no agreement on the wages policy among the. majority of parties represented in the Queuille administration. Earlier to-day, M. Moch presented to the leaders of all parties in the late Government compromise proposals on the wages policy dispute, which caused the fall of the Queuille Government last week. Recording to well-informed circles, he proposed a temporary remedy to meet the un : on wage claims.

Proposed Bases for New Cabinet (Rec. 8.25). LONDON, October 11. The Daily Telegraph’s correspondent at Paris says: M. Auriol, President of the Republic, is to intervene personally this (Tuesday) morning, in an effort to break the French political crisis. He will see M. Reynaud (leader of the Right Wing Independents), as well as representatives of ■ the Peasant Party and the Right Wing Party of Republican Liberty. This decision has followed a meeting on Monday night between M. Moch (Socialist Minister of the Interior), and th e President. M. Moch reported on his efforts to., find an agreement on which a new Government could be formed. Earlier on Monday night M. Moch presided over a meeting of the heads of all the non-Communist groups in the National Assembly. He presented to them a programme on wages and prices, and he suggested that agreement was possible between all of the parties of the coalition It was a dispute over these issues which caused Dr Queuille’s Government to fall. The main outline of- M. Moch’s plan is that prices should be reduced by State subsidies; and that the prices should be fixed at lower levels. He suggested cuts in the prices of olive oil, butter, domestic coal, wine, and sugar.

Labour Situation Getting Worse (Rec. 10.40). PARIS, October 11. M. Moch’s chances of preparing a programme on which the divided elements of France’s. Government can re-unite are considered to have improved. President Auriol said that he would meet ( be .leaders to-day, and would try to win over the Moderate and the Right Wing groups, whose support M. Moch has failed to enlist. Press correspondents say that, meanwhile, the labour situation is clearly deteriorating, because of a renewed agitation by the Left extremists. Miners have walked out of fifteen pits in the northern coal mines where the Communists are strong. MOCH COMMISSIONED (Rec. 11.5). LONDON, October 11. _ The Paris correspondent of the British United Press says: President Auriol has asked the Socialist, M. Jules Moch, former Minister of the Interior, to form a Government. M. Moch has promised to reply at 4 p.m. G.M.T. to-day.