5 NOVEMBER 1910, Page 1

NEWS OF THE WEEK.

THE debate on the French railway strike was continued in the Chamber last Saturday amid extraordinary disorder.

M. Jaures charged M. Briand with pretending to confront the ' Chamber with a united Cabinet although he had the resigna- ' tion of M. Viviani in his pocket. M. Briand spoke amid howls of execration from the Socialists. The Times corre- spondent says that the noise was so great that M. Briand did not attempt to do more than speak to the official reporters below the tribune. He declared that above the right to strike was the right of the community to exist. Salta publiea truprema lest was the true law of the Revolution, the pure doctrine of Danton. He had acted, and always should

• act, in the cause of liberty. The chief outburst was caused by M. Briand's words :—" I am going to tell you something which will make you jump. If the Government had not found in the law that which enabled it to remain master of the frontiers of France and master of its railways, which are the indispensable instruments of the national defence—if, in a word, the Government had found it necessary to resort

• to illegality, it would have done so." When M. Briand with- - drew from the tribune the Socialists seemed to threaten him -with personal violence.