Evening star., 1947-12-05
France
Continued From First Page.)

fered yesterday at Valence as the
result of a fight to reoccupy a rail-
way station. There were similar at
tempts at Beziers, Narbonne, Per-
pignan, Marseille and CarnoulesD
The effort succeeded in Carhoules
A train and IS cars were derailed
near Tours, without serious cas-
ualties.
The amateur police of the strikers
in st. Etienne, said to be armed
with blackjacks and clubs, were re-
ported stopping all passers to check
their identities. The same reports
said a strikers Censorship Commit
tee had been set up and that the
printers union had been given Or
ders to allow no publications unless
approved by the committee.
A paper, purporting to be a secret
order of the Communist Party, was
displayed in the corridors of the
National Assembly in Paris calling
for offensive action against all
police forces" in Loire Department,
around st. Etienne. So
Strikers Hold Town Hall.
Strikers also were said to have
control of the town hall and post
Office in Aries. The city was isolated
from telephone communication.
At Valenciennes, strikers and
sympathizers were reported still In
control of the station they seized
yesterday at cost of three lives.
The police and strikers engaged In
q prisoner exchange. A police in
spector seized by the strikers was
sWapped for four arrested strikers.
At st. Quen, in the Paris suburbs,
a mobile guardsman suffered serious
injuries in a melee which resulted
when 1000 persons tried to seize a
navy-occupied power station.
Paris was isolated from all con-
tact with the outside world for q
time when radio and telegraph serv-
ices failed because of the power
shutdown, and long distance tele-
phone operators did not answer.
Dial telephones continued to operate
within the city.
The strike call to state and public
workers is for a token walkout'
which is to end next Tuesday night
Some public workers were called out
for five days, beginning today, others
for two days starting Monday.
The joint Board of Public Service
Unions voted the strike, n to %
with seven abstentions, to back up
their demands for a raise from the
present $500 franc monthly mini
mum wage to 10000 francs. The
government has offered 10000 francs
In terms of official dollar equiva-
lents, this would mean the govern
ment has offered to raise the min
imum wage from $71 to $84 month,
while the union wants 81 month
more. In actual purchasing power
however, these dollar figures repre-
sent Less than half their apparent
values.
Approximately 100000 govern
ment employees are expected to be
idled by this warning strike"
No Sign Of Strike End.
There was no sign of an end to
the strikes, although a powerful
ack-to-work movement among the
rank and file had reduced their ef-
fectiveness somewhat. The Ministry
of Industry announced the following
figures yesterday:
Electric power production-80 per
cent of normal.
Railroad traffic-80 per cent Of
normal
In the great Lille coal region, the
ministry said, only $1,000 of 10000
miners remained on strike.
On the other hand, Marseille, the
nations second largest city and
greatest port, remained paralyzed
"A general strike was called at Nice
At Lyon parachute troops forced
strikers to replace paving stones
they had torn up to use In barri-
cades.