THE OTAGO DAILY TIMES FRIDAY December 2, 1935. M. DALADIER’S TRIUMPH

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23672, 2 December 1938, Page 8

THE OTAGO DAILY TIMES FRIDAY December 2, 1935. M. DALADIER’S TRIUMPH

The general strike in France, intended to disorganise for twentyfour hours all essential services as a demonstration of dissent by the working masses from the unpopular recovery decrees recently promulgated by the Daladier Government. has proved to be of the nature of a damp squib rather than of a bombshell. Throughout the country less than half of the full membership of the Confederation of Labour obeyed the call to cease work, and of that proportion the majority - were miners in the provinces and workers in the heavy industries. The civil servants in Paris and in other centres appear to have unhesitatingly ranged themselves on the side of law and order, with the result that the Government, supported by loyal workers, encountered little difficulty in maintaining services that did not fall far short of normal schedules. It is a significant and hopeful augury for future peace in industry that the strike leaders themselves have had to confess failure. In the Paris area, they declare, the strike was broken by the effectiveness of the Government’s emergency preparations. But that is obviously only part of the truth There is evidence which suggests that realisation of the necessity for drastic Governmental action to promote economic recovery is far more general among the working classes than might have been supposed. There is also the strongest indication that a vast majority of the workers, regardless of their political views, were not prepared to take the extreme step of provoking industrial paralysis, at the risk of grave civil disturbance, as a means of securing redress of their grievances M. Daladier is reasonably entitled to claim that the outcome of this trial of strength amounts to a public vote of confidence in the Government. He took a stand in a moment of very real crisis, and the country supported him. “ I said,” he has told the nation in a bi'oadcast, “ that I would make the authority of the State respected. It has been respected.” There is much more in this gratifying sequel than the adding of cubits to M. Daladier’s political stature, though it should be readily agreed that he has achieved something in the nature of a persona] triumph If Parliament confirms its faith in his leadership as the people appear to have done, there is the promise of a period of political stability in which muchneeded impetus may be given to the processes by which the Government hopes to restore the economic as well as the military strength of the republic. The Premier must yet expect to encounter obstacles to the prosecution of his full programme, but he has at least shown that firmness will not be lacking in his efforts to overcome them.