FRENCH STRIKE SCENES.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIII, Issue 19418, 28 August 1926, Page 11

FRENCH STRIKE SCENES.

TROUBLE AT DUNKIRK. TOWN IN "'STATE OF SIEGE." Disturbances arising out of the strike of port workers at Dunkirk in July were so serious that precautions had to bo taken which, according to one correspondent, practically put the town in a state of siege. After the events of July 10, when a group of extremists destroyed merchandise to the value of 300,000 francs during a raid on the docks which lasted only about an hour, the authorities took extraordinary precautions against sabotage. Especially vigilant watch was kept upon oil vessels, access to which was guarded by barricades of chains in fear of extremist attempts to set such vessels on fire. The Prefect of the Nord Department, after presiding over a meeting at which both employers and dock workers were represented, decided that in view of the possibility of fresh outbreaks of disorder the local police must be reinforced. Fresh brigades of gendarmes, both foot and mounted, were therefore called into the town, to which detachments of cavalry were also sent. Meanwhile Communist agitators carried on an intense propaganda among the strikers, inciting them to acts of violence and distributing tracts intended .to create a spirit of indiscipline among the troops which had been called in.