Astonishing riots have occurred among the Marne wine- growers owing
to the action of the French Senate on Tuesday in passing a resolution unfavourable to the delimitation of the Champagne district. Directly the news of the resolution in the Senate became known the vignerons burst into a violent rioting and began destroying property in a manner which reminded the Times correspondent of the characteristic excesses of the French Revolution. A curious fact is that the grievance in the Champagne district has been exactly inverted by the action of the Senate. Recently riots took place among the Aubois when the Government proceeded, in accordance with a decision taken in February, technically to separate the Aube from Marne and the Ardennes. The former. was to be excluded from the Champagne district; the latter were to be included. The Aube produces inferior champagne to Marne and the Ardennes, but the Aubois naturally resented being shut out from the famous Champagne district, to which they had long attached themselves on sufferance. The Government, alarmed by the street fighting in the Aube,promised to inquire further into the whole question of delimitation, and peace was temporarily restored. Then came the vote of the Senate on Tuesday, which increased the likelihood that the Government will abandon the new delimitation altogether and try to conciliate everybody by an alternative policy of declaring war on false labels.
