For once there was a shining semblance of unity in France: unity against the Communists. As a result of unity, there was victory. Future battles might have different outcomes, but in this one, at least, France had beaten the “Cocos.” One night in Paris, where electric current was on again, two powerful searchlights made a giant V in the sky. Actually this show was for the late wartime hero, General Jacques Leclerc (TIME, Dec. 8), whose body lay in Notre Dame. But many Parisians saw it as a symbol of triumph over a newer enemy.
The Assembly passed Premier Schuman’s strike-control bill (TIME, Dec. 8). At week’s end nearly 1,000 had been arrested on sabotage charges. Minister of Interior Jules Moch, a tall, dark, Communist-hating Socialist, told the Assembly that he had authorized police and troops to fire on rioters if necessary. Moch also said that newly mobilized reservists would be ready by Wednesday of this week, and that, thereafter, “in every mine and in every factory where men want to work . . . they will be free to do so.”
The C.G.T.’s Benoît Frachon tried a last-ditch expedient. He called on one-eyed President Vincent Auriol at Elysée Palace and asked him to send Schuman’s strike bill back to the Assembly for a second reading. The President of the Republic has that right, but Auriol refused. Next day Frachon telephoned Maurice Thorez, secretary of the French Communist Party, just back from Moscow. Said Frachon to Thorez: “I cannot hold much longer. I warn you, the situation is getting out of control.”
Indeed it was. Eighteen of the 20 unions with which the Cemmunist-dominated C.G.T. had launched its political strike drive were partly or wholly back at work. Even the two unions on which the Red grip was strongest—the miners and dockers—were straining at the leash.
Someone tossed a bomb into the yard of Communist Thorez’s house at Choisy-le-Roi. Thorez was unhurt, but his wife was cut by flying glass. Without conscious irony, Thorez remarked: “There seems to be a lack of order in the country.”
Even as he uttered this priceless comment, disorder was dying down. For 36 hours, at week’s end, not a single riot or act of sabotage was reported anywhere. The Reds seemed to be licking their wounds.
More Must-Reads from TIME
- Inside Elon Musk’s War on Washington
- Why Do More Young Adults Have Cancer?
- Colman Domingo Leads With Radical Love
- 11 New Books to Read in February
- How to Get Better at Doing Things Alone
- Cecily Strong on Goober the Clown
- Column: The Rise of America’s Broligarchy
- Introducing the 2025 Closers
Contact us at letters@time.com