Fear of disruptions and the Government's energetic measures combined to break the back of the projected general strike yesterday, even before it was launched, with the result that the number of strikers appeared to have been below 20 per cent.
Drastic measures taken, amounting to the mobilization of all workers, were legally, ordained under a decree passed through Parliament, by a previous Leftist Government, with a Socialist majority.
Transport was the crux of the trial of strength between the Government and the Trade Unions, and it was in the transport industry that the strike order had mostly been disobeyed.
Restraint, which had -been urged upon the adherents of the Confederation Generale de Travail, had been widely obeyed. The same restraint was outstanding on the part of public authorities.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.