May Day in Paris came with the usual promise of
Labour riots and—thanks to M. Briand—passed with as much calm as has marked the day any time these six years. The organisers of the General Confederation of Labour had arranged for a demonstration in the Bois and a subsequent procession through the streets, and their announcements were made with what It Briand called " menaces and provoca- tions." M. Briand gave orders for a large number of troops to be ready for service in the streets, and forbade the pro- cession which had been so ominously heralded. The organisers went on with their arrangements, however, and at the eleventh hour sent a deputation to IL Briand to ask for formal permission for the procession. M. Briand answered that the request came too late; that there was only one way now to prevent the disorders which had been so freely put in train. The Labour leaders distributed circulars during the night cancelling their arrangements, in order, as they put it, to " avoid a massacre." It need hardly be said that M. Briand believes in the right of public meeting as much as any man of sense, but he does not believe that a Government should surrender the right of preserving public order. An innovation in the employment of the troops was that they were not hidden away in barracks, but were picketed along the whole route from the Bois to the Place de la Republique. Parisians seem to have thoroughly enjoyed their day under these picturesque conditions.
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