Édouard DALADIER (1884-1970) statesman, signatory... - Lot 192 - Ader

Édouard DALADIER (1884-1970) statesman, signatory of the Munich Agreements. L.S., Paris November 29, 1938, to Léon BLUM; 4 pages in-4 typed. headed Presidency of the Council. Long and scathing letter in reply to Blum about the requisitions, telling him that he himself had initiated and used them under the Front Populaire. In November 1938, Daladier, President of the Council, issued decrees which reversed certain measures of the Popular Front, in particular the law on the 40 hours; major strikes were provoked; the government then requisitioned transport and sent troops to the factory entrances. Daladier first recalls and details the spirit and the scope of the decrees that he has taken, then responds vehemently: "Will you reproach me for giving the 1877 Law the scope that you yourself gave it when you asked me to issue the decree of 6 June 1936 to requisition petrol, and when by application of this same initial text the Under-Secretary of State for Public Works asked me, in agreement with you, to requisition, in accordance with the Decree of 6 June 1936, with their personnel, barges to ensure, on 13 October 1936, the supply of coal to the Paris region? The same intervention was followed on many occasions, without raising the slightest criticism, to requisition industrial establishments and their personnel. I will quote as the most characteristic example the requisition of the FOUGA Company Factory, in Béziers, with its staff whose almost entire activity was devoted to the manufacture of railway equipment, on July 29, 1938, a requisition which met with the full approval of the Popular. At the time when the latter newspaper publicly accused me, on several occasions, of violating the law, and of taking illegal requisitions in matters of Railways and public or conceded services, did I not have the right to recall the texts which had given me the power to act, and to refer to the interpretation which had been adopted, when you were President of the Council, with your approval and even on your initiative? "»...