L’Écho d’Alger
- For Algeria
- General strike to be called if the eight-hour law is changed
- My talks with Mr Stresemann
A polemic against Governor Viollette turns travel and personal allowances into an argument about the cost of colonial administration. A miners’ congress threatens action over the eight-hour law while making aid to British strikers conditional on wider participation. Briand, meanwhile, speaks of peace but reserves the details of his German talks for his colleagues. The reading keeps the paper’s hostile budget claims, a union resolution and a minister’s statement attributed to their different speakers.
Translation
For Algeria
So Mr Viollette’s entourage costs us dearly; his travels cost us still more; but Mr Viollette himself breaks the record. Apart from the President of the Republic, whose high office and representational duties far exceed those of our great beneficiary, no statesman in France enjoys anything like Mr Viollette’s advantages.
Here is the breakdown:
Salary: 60,000
Representation expenses: 150,000
Secret expenses: 120,000
Southern Territories: 60,000
Total: 390,000
Add that Mr Viollette is housed, heated, lit, provided with laundry and servants, and has carriages and two motorcars at his disposal, with petrol, oil and chauffeur paid for. There are certainly a few sovereigns in Europe who cost their nations less.
General strike to be called if the eight-hour law is changed
Lens, September 18.—The congress of the National Miners’ Federation adopted a resolution advocating a general strike in the mines if the eight-hour law is changed.
The congress then considered the striking British miners’ request for assistance. It thought the request should be granted, provided that the exporting countries—America, Germany and Poland—also take action, and that seamen, together with British dockers and railway workers, give the most effective possible support.
My talks with Mr Stresemann
Paris, September 18.—Mr Briand received representatives of the press at the Quai d’Orsay and made the following statements:
“I return from Geneva with the best of impressions and the greatest hopes of seeing lasting peace established in Europe.
“You know that the elections have caused the greatest satisfaction in circles friendly to France. Clearly, my talks with Mr Stresemann interest you most. I can give you no details before briefing my colleagues. I will do so on Tuesday.
“But I wish to tell you now what has guided my thought and action: my unwavering attachment to peace and my determination to organize it in Europe.
“France, you see, has given such striking proof of its heroism through long and bloody years that it need fear no shadow of humiliation when it turns to peaceful concerns.”
Mr Stresemann expresses his satisfaction to journalists
“I myself was prime minister during the war; I know all the suffering a conflict entails, and I am firmly and profoundly determined to do everything to put an end to war.”
Context
Why expenses became a weapon against the governor
The column turns salaries, allowances and services into an argument about political privilege. Its comparison with European monarchs places a colonial governor’s living arrangements on a scale of national power, inviting readers to ask what justifies the expense. Viollette also faced opposition over his Algerian reforms. In that setting, an itemized attack on his costs could undermine his authority as well as challenge a budget.
Why support for British miners crossed borders and trades
Coal could reach British consumers from foreign mines and through ports and railways. A French miners’ action alone could therefore be undermined by supply from elsewhere. The congress’s conditions follow that chain: exporters, seamen, dockers and railway workers would have to coordinate for solidarity to exert real pressure. The same meeting also defends the eight-hour law at home, linking an international dispute with workers’ own fear of longer hours.
Using wartime service to defend a turn towards peace
Briand anticipates an objection that reconciliation might humiliate France. He answers through the country’s wartime sacrifice and his own experience as wartime premier. That gives peace a claim to patriotic legitimacy: a nation that has proved its courage can negotiate without appearing to retreat from weakness. The speech seeks public room for talks with Germany before disclosing their precise terms to the press.
Original
POUR Lt ALGÉRBE
Donc, l'entourage de M. Viollette
nous coûte fort cher; les voyages de
M. Viollette nous coûtent plus cher
encore ; mais le record est battu par
M. Viollette lui-même. A part le Pré-
sident de la République, dont la hau-
te dignité et les obligations de repré-
sentation laissent tout de même loin
derrière celles de notre grand prében-
dier, il n'est pas un homme d'Etat
en. France qui jouisse, à beaucoup
près, d'avantages égaux à ceux de
M. Viollette.
, En voici le décomote 1
Traitement. 60.000
frais de représentation. 150.000
Dépenses secrètes 120.000
Territoires du Sud.. 60.000
Total. 390.000
Ajoutez que M. Viollette est logé,
chauffé, éclairé, blanchi, servi, qu'il
dispose de voitures et de deux autos,
essence, huile et chauffeur payés. Il
existe certainement en Èurope quel-
ques souverains moins coûteux pour
leur nation.
LA CREVE CENIERALE SERAIT DECRETEE SI LA LOI DE HUIT HEURES EST MODIFIEE
Lens, 18 septembre. — Le congrès de
)a Fédération nationale des Mineurs a
adopté un vœu préconisant la grève gé-
nérale dans les mines dans le cas où la
loi de huit heures serait modifiée.
Le congrès a ensuite examiné la de-
mande des mineurs anglais en grève de
leur venir en aide. Il estime qu'il y
avait lieu de faire droit à cette deman-
de sous réserve que les pays exporta-
teurs, nAmérique, UAllemagne, la Po-
logne entreront, eux aussi, dans l'ac-
tion et que les marins, simultanément
javec les dockers et les cheminots an-
glais, apporteront leur concours le plus
efficace. „
MES ENTRETIENS AVEC M. STRESEMANN.
Paris, 18 septembre. — M. Briand
a reçu au Quai d'Orsay, es repré-
sentants de la presse et leur a fait !es
déclarations suivantes :
— Je rapporte de Genève l'impres-
sion la meilleure et les plus grands
espoirs de voir s'établir en Eurcpe une
paix durable.
Vous savez que les élections ont pro
voqué la, plus vive satisfaction dans
les milieux qui ont de l'amitié pour
la France. Evidemment, ce sont mes
entretiens avec M. Stresemann qui
vous intéressent le plus. Je ne puis
vous donner aucun détail avant d'avoir
mis mes collègues au courant. Je le
l'erai mardi.
Mais, dès maintenant, je tiens à vous
indiquer les directives qui ont guidé
ma pensée et mon action : c'est mon
attachement indéfectible pour la paix
et la volonté de i Oi^anisèr en Eu-
rope.
La France, voyez-vous, a donné pen-
dant de longues années sanglantes, les
preuves assez éclatantes de son hé-
roïsme pour ne redouter aucune om-
bre drhumiliati<sui, au moment où elle
se tourne vers des préoccupations pa-
cifiques. ,
M. Stresemann exprime sa satisfaction aux journalistes
Moi-même j'ai été président du Con-
seil pendant la guerre ; je sais tout
ce qu'un conflit comporte de souf-
frances et je suis résolument et pro-
fondément décidé à tout faire pour
venir à bout de la guerre.