France's Labour Troubles The labour crisis in France, which once
again has involved the Front Populaire Government in serious difficulties, appears to have been precipitated by the folly or intent of workers and employers alike. The workers have alarmed the middle-class and the Radicals by reviving the stay-in strike, which has become a kind of bogey; on the other hand, repre- sentatives of heavy industry on Tuesday refused to take part at the joint conference at the Hotel Matignon on M. Chautemps' proposals for a new labour code. The code is intended to strengthen compulsory arbitration, regulate the employment and discharge of labour, prevent stay-in strikes, and ensure that a secret ballot shall be taken on every strike decision. As it is, M. Chautemps will probably have to introduce the code on his own and the Cabinet's authority. In the Cabinet itself he may be faced with opposi- tion from M. Bonnet, his Finance Minister, who would not be averse from joining a Government more to the Right, and outside the Cabinet from employers and workers alike. In this renewed struggle of capital and Labour both parties have useful weapons. The Left has been - strengthened by the public indignation aroused by the confessed respon- sibility of a member of C.S.A.R., the terrorist Right wing organisation, for the bomb outrages in the Etoile quarter last September ; the employers may derive even greater assistance from the new attack on the franc which began last week, timed with suspicious accuracy to coincide with their refusal to discuss M. Chautemps' proposals. It is clear that a serious Cabinet crisis is imminent.
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