NEW PHASE

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXX, 11 June 1936, Page 7

NEW PHASE

INDUSTRIAL FRANCE EXPERIMENTS REGARDLESS OF DANGER HOPE REPLACING PESSIMISM (United Press Association— By Electric Telegraph—Copyright) (Received 11th June, 9.0 a.m.) LONDON, 10th June. The “Manchester Guardian’s” Paris correspondent considers it is becoming clearer every day that France is entering on a new phase. She is tired after 3 years of depression, considers conservatism and economic caution are played out, and is prepared to engage in experiments regardless of danger. The psychological atmosphere has enormously improved, and hope is replacing widespread pessimism even among the employers. The textile trade in North France sent a deputation to M. Blum urging that increased costs would necessitate export subsidies to enable the industry to compete in the colonial and foreign markets. Herr Hitler regards the strikes as the fulfilment of his prophecy that Bolshevism has spread to France. His aversion to the Soviet extending to France, and even to western democracy as a whole, is increasing his reluctance to reply to the British questionnaire.

LABOUR LEGISLATION BILLS TABLED, IN CHAMBER EXTENSION OF NATIONAL AGREEMENT PARIS, 9th June. In the Chamber of Deputies, M. Blum, Prime Minister, tabled bills for a 40-hour weefi, an annual holiday of 15 days with pay, collective contracts, exemption of war veterans from taxation, and alterations to certain decree laws. He asked the Chamber to adopt procedure of extreme urgency. The Chamber by a large majority gave its approval and adjourned after referring the measures to Commissions. , , The Bill for collective contracts gives public authority and power to arbitrate in case of differences between parties respecting the national agreement, and extends the agreement to parties not represented in the negotiations on 7th June. Employers in the textile industry told M. Blum that they would accept the agreement but drew the attention of the Government to the necessity for a reduction of the export tax in order to enable them to defend their markets.

Boulogne shopgirls desire the abolition of an order that they must appear for work attractively made up, declaring that they are workers and not actresses. TRIBUTE TO STRIKERS PERFECT ORDER MAINTAINED LONDON, 9th June. The “Manchester Guardian’s” Paris correspondent says that it is difficult for outsiders to realise the enormous effect of Monday’s agreement on the working class. The truth is that the ■bulk of the employers for the first xime agreed to sign a general agreement with qualified representatives of the entire working class’s patrons, ■thereby in the eyes of the workers abandoning their sacred perrogatives and placing themselves on a footing of equality willi the proletariat. The agreement has, inter alia, ended the practice whereby certain employers could openly refuse to employ union labour, Socialists, or Communists. The Paris correspondent of the “Times” says that the raising of wages to a level more closely approaching the western European standard illustrates the danger of trying to achieve social progress in a country where the currency is seriously over-valued. The trade unions have won a sweeping victory, but have not got much more than the British “working man has received for years. French workers have for years been employed in premises which British factory inspectors would not tolerate.

The wage advance was won only after years of constant agitation and sullen acquiescence in a life on a subsistence, level, yet, despite the bitterness of the struggle, the strikers maintained perfect order, sweeping the factories, painting floors, repairing and plumbing. They even took up collections to repair a plate-glass window which was accidentally broken, No outsiders were allowed to intervene, 170 women Strikers in a one-price store repelling with a fire-hose a number of young Fascists who attempted to enter. RETURNING TO WORK TEXTILE INDUSTRY EMPLOYEES (Received 11th June, 11.40 a.m.) PARIS, 10th June. Seventy thousand textile workers in the Roubaix and Tourcoing districts are resuming to-morrow, with a ten per cent, increase in pay. Other demands will be discussed when M. Blum’s Bill is passed. Northern miners are returning, but the drift to work is not yet general. Those idle, according to some estimates, are 900,000, including new strikers coming out owing to the powerlessness of trades unions. FURTHER STRIKES The latest “stay-in” strikers aer the employees of fashionable costumiers, mannequins, and midinettes, who are sitting in windows chaffing passers-by. Some five thousand agriculturalists in Seine et Oise struck, also stone masons, market gardeners, florists, racing stable boys, and Parisian charwomen. Strikers numbering 1850 occupied the Schneider munition works at Le Havre, and strikers have still not evacuated the Citroen, Ranault, and Courtauld factories. The Blue Train ran again, but employees on the French line struck after the sailing' of the Normandie at 11 a.m., occupying warehouses. Many employers repudiate the wage increases, declaring the concessions will total thirty-five per cent, when the forty-hour week is paid and holidays are considered. Parisian police are prosecuting shppkeepers for profiteering to the extent of 50 to 100 per cent., when the food supply was menaced. Already 250 summonses have been issued. Lifeboatmen on the Seine are striking. They erected placards forbidding people to jump into the water, adding humourously, that while the strike lasts, only mothers-in-law will be saved. MODIFYING BANK OF FRANCE (Received 11th June, 9.15 a.m.) PARIS, 10th June. As the strikers are gradually returning to work interest is shifting to other features of the Government’s programme, notably M. Auriol’s Bill modifying the Bank of France, which will probably result in the issue department being brought under Government control' to ensure that the banks will more freely lend to the Government.

INFLUENCING BELGIUM VAN ZEELAND’S PROGRAMME DRASTIC CONSTITUTIONAL REFORMS (United Press Association—By FJectric Telegraph—Copyright) (Received 11th June, 9 a.m.) BRUSSELS, 10th June. The situation in France is influencing Belgium. M. Van Zeeland’s programme is believed to include paid holidays, though opposed to a fortyhour week. He also favours collective bargaining by employers and workers, the establishment of a technics,l council in each industry to advise upon laws affecting them, and sponsors drastic constitutional reforms. An attempt by Belgian coal miners at Liege to emulate the “stay-in” strikes failed, and the police ejected them without incident. GENERAL STRIKE THREATENED IN MADRID OUTBREAK OF FOOD RIOTING (United Press Association—By Electric Telegraph—Copyright) (Received 11th, June, 9 a.m.) MADRID, 10th June. Food rioting has broken out as the results of a series of strikes during the past week, and the city is threatened with a general strike.