Evening star., 1937-12-29
Paris
Continued From First Page)

former Premier Leon Blum. Socialist
adherents to the Peoples Front have
been urging less agitation by labor.
A split, in test over settlement OF the
strike, conceivably may force M.
Chautemps to resign.
The public utility strike came at a
time when the premier IS endeavor-
ing to end a series of other strikes IN
industrial regions outside Paris-Paris
truck drivers. employees of the Gooa-
rich rubber factory and several air.
plane plants. nationally operated,
have been out for the last several
weeks
Chautemps, ordering an emergency
cabinet session to deal with the
Partisan strike. condemned the mass
Walkout and warned that the govern
ment would combat it with the great
est vigor'
The premier in statement assert
ed the strike had been deliberately
provoked"
Services to BE Maintained.
After preliminary meeting with
his principal ministers. the Radical
Socialist premier declared the govern
ment would assure maintenance of
essential services for the metropolis.
His statement followed close upon
the vote of solid support of the public
service strikers by the National Con-
gress of the Communist party.
M. Chautemps refused to see a dele
cation of strikers who sought to talk
with him at his Office after he had
conferred with Vice Premier Blum,
Defense Minister Edouard Daladier
and Minister of Interior Marx Dormoy
In that hasty ministerial parley, Of
flcials said, members of the govern
ment drafted measures necessary to
assure the maintenance of order and
the functioning of public services"
The Premier was described as de-
termined not to negotiate with the
workers until they returned to their
jobs.
Chautemps' Declaration.
M. Chautemps' declaration said:
The situation created by the strike
in the public services is serious, but
the government is resolved to face it
with the greatest vigor.
In no case will the government
permit interruption of service indis-
pensible to the life of the nation.
Moreover the present strike started
under conditions which leave no doubt
as to the intention of the authors
The movement was declared at the
very moment when the minister of in
terror had just given favorable assur-
ances to the interested parties and 1
myself had promised them a hearing,
Thus. the grave social disorder
which was deliberately provoked and
molests unjustly all the Partisan popu-
latlon finds no excuse in any corpora
tive motive.
I appeal for calm among the people
and for reflection by those public serv-
ice employees who let themselves be
led astray. All should be certain that
the government will know how to full
NIL Its duty and assure. despite all re-
sistance, the resumption of services
and maintenance of public order"
The Communist action raised one
OF the gravest threats to the govern
ment coalition since it came to power
IN June, 1896. The Radical-Socialists
had been disavowing strikes while the
Socialists had been urging less agita-
ton by labor.
Premier Chautemps, already under
fire from the parliamentary opposi-
tion for the governments failure to
settle a wide crop of strikes, espe-
cially in the food and trucking in
dustries. faced the threat of an even
stronger parliamentary protest.
A high government official hinted
today's walkout might have been Com
munist-inspired. And Eugene De-
loncle, accused as the leader of the
Rightist Csar-Comite Secret d'Action
Revolutionnaire-had testified that a
frustrated Communist revolution had
been set for mid November, with wide
spread strikes as part of the revolu-
tionists' tactics.
These latter developments led OBJ
servers to believe that the life of the
Chautemps cabinet depended on the
speed with which the government
brought a labor peace.
The Canary Islands, belonging to