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PETROL SUPPLY GIVES
NEW THREAT IN
FRENCH STRIKE
PARIS, Fri.-A petrol famine today threatened
to worsen the paralysis of strikebound France and
halt the main transport still on the move.
Garages are running out of petrol and have had
no deliveries for some time.
Bus garages and under
ground stations were
locked this morning.
The Catholic, Communist and
Socialist unions decided to con
tinue the transport strike, but a
24-hour strike of "white-collar"
workers-shop assistants, civil
servants and insurance clerks
called yesterday was an almost
upiversal failure.
In the Upper Seine department
last night 200 civil servants
marched on the prefecture of
Epinal and made a bonfire of or
ders requisitioning them for
work, then sang the "Marseil
laise."
Paris radio said today that
"food supplies are ensured and
the population is urged to have
no anxiety about this."
Few Trains
The situation remained serious
throughout France today.
R?adio technicians and radio
and television administrative
staffs struck and early risers had
to rely on foreign broadcasts..
It was announced later that 50
underground trains out of a total
of 200 were operating in Paris
but only 15 of the city's 1,800
buses were running.
The Ministry of Posts and Tele
graphs reported an improve
ment, with about 'half of the
country's 220,000 post office
workers now back at work.
Two new branches of private
industry were called out today.
Chemical and building workers
were ordered out for 24-hours
by the Catholic and Communist
unions.
Most metal workers who stop
ped for the day yesterday were
back in their factories today.
Convicts have been called in to
collect rubbish which has lain in
the hot sun for days, and Red
Cross workers are burying the
dead.
"Doing Fine"
A dynamic 59-year-old Aus
tralian grandmother was among
a group of stranded British tour
ists who spent last night in empty
railway coaches at Calais.
Christened "Queen of the Train
Squatters," Mrs. Beatrice Mul
lany, of Brighton, Melbourne,
said that she had not eaten for
two days when she reached
Calais on Wednesday, but 40
cigarettes a day and a glass of
milk was quite enough to keep
her going.
"I battled right through this
strike business and I'm doing fine
so far," she said.
"When we got to Paris we slept
in an empty train.
"Police tried to turf us out, but
we just stared back blankly
while they shouted and after a
long session of hand-waving they
left us alone."
The Australian Embassy and
New Zealand Legation in Paris
'today reported few requests for
help from stranded nationals.
Officials said that there ap
peared to be far fewer Austra
lians and New Zealanders in
Paris than normal at this time of
the year, probably because most
of them made trips to France in
June after the Coronation.
Sympathies
The chances are that with
time the sympathies of the gene
ral public will swing over to the
forces of law and order, says a
special Reuters correspondent.
At present these sympathies are
still, if only obscurely, with the
strikers, who symbolise the small
man underpaid and inadequately
housed.
But -the strikes reflect also a
Swidespread and profound dis
gust with Parliament and what
is regarded as the inefficient and
corrupt manner in which it has
conducted public affairs since the
war.
One significant feature of the
strike movement is the way in
which the Communists are keep
ing in the background.
.There has- been inner party
attife since the illness of M,
Maurice Thorez weakened his
leadership, and the Communists
seem to sense that they cannot
hold the masses in a strike
movement if the Socialist and
Catholic unions decide to call a
halt, which might well happen.
This Communist attitude helps
to account for the very peaceful
nature of the vast strike move
ment.
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