Downhill in France
When, last Friday, the French Government finally authorised the police to fire in self-defence against the strikers in the coalfields there was a curious attempt to represent the decision as a piece of savagery on the part of the authorities. How this conclusion was reached, and why it was emphasised by organs of public information which had given no prominence whatever to the brutal attacks on the police previously carried out by the strikers, is a mystery. The restraint of the French Minister of the Interior has been so great as to be almost reprehensible. There was never any real doubt about the political nature of the strike. From the start its Communist instigators have not shrunk from sabotage and personal violence. The Government, on the other hand, has tried to avoid counter- measures even at a time when police were being daily maltreated in the course of their thankless duties. Even now the limited sanction for the use of arms is the very minimum of retaliation. The decree calling up 40,000 reserves is little more than a gesture. And the taking over of pits by the troops near Valenciennes and Le Creusot was clearly required in order to prevent irreparable damage to the French economy and to the interests of the miners themselves. Since many pits were already flooded before action was taken, this was the least that could be done. Respect for the traditions of the Republic, which are all against even a show of armed force in dqmestic disputes, and for the constitutional right to strike, is one thing. Inaction in the face of a flagrant attempt by the Communists to seize by force what they cannot obtain by constitutional action is another. The French Government had no alternative. It is only to be re- gretted that M. Moch, the Minister of the Interior, did not move sooner, for the damage already done in the mines and throughout the French economy, is almost as much as the gravely weakened structure can bear.
