SOVIET FRANCE

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22446, 16 June 1936, Page 9

SOVIET FRANCE

" VICTORY FESTIVAL "

VAST GATHERING IN PARIS

NEW FLAGS ON DISPLAY

By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright

LONDON, June 14

The Paris correspondent of the Manchester Guardian says that while racegoers, representing half of Paris, went to Chantilly to see the French Derby, the other half spent the afternoon at a Victory Festival, organised by the Communist Party at the Velodrome, a vast open-air •stadium in the working-class suburb of Montrouge. Everything was well organised, with flags and banners on a colossal scale. A crowd of 100,000 packed the grandstands, and 100,000 stood in the sunny arena, which was bisected by a raised gangway leading to the speakers' forum. Tricolours alternated with red flags, and banners, inscribed "A Free, Strong and Happy France," floated at each end of the stadium.

Everyone wore red emblems, and a huge picture of the late Henri Barbousse adorned the speakers' platform. A band played revolutionary tunes, while squads of victorious strikers bearing banners displaying hammer and sickle badges paraded on the gangway as crowds cheered for the Soviet.

Suddenly four great flags were broken from flagpoles in the middle of the arena. These were examples of the newly-devised national flag of Soviet France, namely, a red field quartered with the tficoiour and the Communist hammer and sickle between the golden letters R.F. on the fly. Here was a strange vision of the new France in the making. The names of 22 victims of Fascism killed in street fights in the past two years were read out, with a drum-tapped requiem after each name, the band finally playing the Russian funeral march.

Speakers delivered addresses triumphantly recording the result of the strikes and prophesying a more prosperous future for the workers.

FACTORIES EVACUATED TERMINATION OF STRIKES WORKERS REMOVE NOTICES LONDON, June 14 The Daily Mail's Paris correspondent says that, marking the termination of the majority of strikes, 100,000 employees who are resuming to-morrow marched in orderly files from the workshops they had occupied. Bodies of men afterward returned to many factories, in which they spent hours removing the revolutionary mural drawings and notices.

FATE OF THE FRANC DEVALUATION INEVITABLE THE OPINION IN LONDON LONDON, June 14 In spite of M. Blum's declaration that he does not intend to devalue the franc, it is still a subject of recurring selling pressure. The city is adhering to the view that while devaluation may be temporarily staved off it is ultimately inevitable, especially as M. Blum's labour programme must enormously raise French costs. An important effect of the franc crisis has been to accentuate the seasonal tightening of short-term interest rates owing to operations by the exchange equalisation fund. The Government has been forced to pay 18s Id per cent for Treasury bills, the highest rate in two years.