The full reports of the riots which took place last
week at the Salt Works at Aigues-mortes—a town in that little-known portion of the French coast of the Mediterranean which lies between. Marseilles and the Spanish frontier—show that an exceedingly savage attack was made by the French miners upon a body of Italian labourers whose engagement by the -masters was deeply resented. The Italians were ultimately bunted down and "killed like rats," to the number, it is said, of fifty. There were, besides, some 150 wounded. As soon as the soldiers could be got from Nismes, the rioting was quelled and the Italians protected. The incident has a curious appear- ance when read in the light of the things that are said at the International Labour Congresses about the universal brother- hood of those who toil, the obliteration of race-hatreds, and the sacred rights of humanity. In truth, " the solidarity of labour" is a myth. An unpleasant result of the riots has been anti-French demonstrations in almost all the large Italian towns. In Rome, the French Embassy and the French Consulate were stoned and hooted at by the mob, and in Genoa the tramway-cars were attacked because they are owned by a French company. Fortunately, neither Government has any desire but to stamp-out the sparks of ill-feeling as quickly as possible, and we shall therefore hear no more of these incidents. The growing hatred of the two races is, however, very marked and very ominous of ill.
