Strike Situation In French Mines Is Still Critical

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26915, 29 October 1948, Page 5

Strike Situation In French Mines Is Still Critical

N.Z.P.A.—Copyright PARIS, Oct. 27. The strike situation in Northern France is still critical, although 15 pits in the eastern part of the northern basiij, have been occupied by troops. In the more heavily concentrated western portion of the basin 97 pits remained in the strikers’ hands, said a French Coal Board spokesman. The Minister of the Interior says 62 per cent, of the strikers in the Lorraine basin have returned to work. Troops to-day occupied the Issot pit, the most important in the St. Etienne region, without resistance from the miners. Train Derailed A Ministry statement announced that a train carrying non-striking miners to work was derailed near Marseilles. No person was hurt. A Ministry spokesman alleged that the derailment was deliberate sabotage. The Executive Committee of the Compagnie Generale Transatlantique decided to appeal to all seamen to stop all shipments of coal to France and asked railwaymen to consider steps to stop all coal coming into France at frontier points on the 'railway lines It also asked all French workers tc

go on staging strikes for short periods as a sign of their solidarity with the miners. The State Secretary for Information, M. F. Mitterand, after a meeting of the Council of Ministers, said he could not give precise details about the steps the Government proposed regarding the dockers’ refusal to unload coal, but declared: “I can tell you the Government will get the coal unloaded.” He added that the forces of law and order were completely masters of the situation at all points. Support from Dockers Dockers at Rouen, the inland port which serves Paris, decided to support the miners by stopping work on the unloading of a dozen colliers. Work on other cargoes is proceeding normally. The Communist-led General Confederation of Labour, which is apparently trying to enlist the support of other French industries for the miners’ strike, has called on all workers in the Gard Department of Southern France to walk out in a 24hour general strike to-morrow Meanwhile, the police have arrested 400 strikers in the Alais area in the past 24 hours. Police in the Valenciennes sector began to clear che Bligniere pit of strikers, and established patrols at a nearby central electric plant. Reuter’s Prague correspondent says the Skoda works employees decided to send £IO,OOO to the striking French miners.