FOR ALMOST FOUR HOURS PARIS - ONE OF THE BUSIEST CITIES IN THE WORLD - CAME TO A STANDSTILL WITH SCARCELY ANY MOVEMENT IN THE STREETS, FEB. 13. A GENERAL STRIKE, WHICH WAS VERY WIDELY OBSERVED, HALTED INDUSTRY AND TRADE. THERE WAS NO GAS, NO ELECTRICITY NO NEWSPAPER AND NO PUBLIC TRANSPORT. THE STRIKE HAD BEEN CALLED TO MARK THE FUNERAL OF THE EIGHT VICTIMS OF THE CLASH WITH THE POLICE IN AN ANTI-O.A.S. RIOT ON FEB. 8.

AT LEAST 200,000 PEOPLE CROWDED INTO THE PLACE DE LA REPUBLIQUE FOR THE START OF THE FUNERAL PROCESSION. THEY INCLUDED MEMBERS OF THE CATHOLIC UNIONS, COMMUNISTS, SOCIALISTS, STUDENTS AND ORDINARY UNCOMMITTED MOURNERS. SOME YOUNG PEOPLE MOVED THROUGH THE CROWD COLLECTING MONEY FOR THE BEREAVED FAMILIES.

ALTHOUGH ONLY FOUR OF THE DEAD WERE BEING BURIED THERE WERE FOUR OTHER "SYMBOLIC" COFFINS PRESENT TO REPRESENT THOSE TO BE BURIED IN PROVINCIAL FAMILY GRAVES. IN ONE OF THE COFFINS LAY THE BODY OF THE YOUNGEST RIOT VICTIM, A FIFTEEN-YEAR-OLD BOY.

FROM THE PLACE DE LA REPUBLIQUE THE PROCESSION MARCHED IN SILENCE TO THE PERE LACHAISE CEMETERY, A DISTANCE OF TWO MILES. PORTRAITS OF THE DEAD AND A FEW BLACK-BORDERED FLAGS WERE ALL THE MARCHERS CARRIED APART FROM THE WREATHS. SOME MASSIVE WREATHS SENT BY POLITICAL ORGANIZATIONS AND UNIONS HAD TO BE CARRIED BY FIVE MEN. BEHIND THE WREATH-BEARERS CAME THE FLOWER-ENCUMBERED HEARSES. THEN FOLLOWED A BLOCK CONSISTING OF THE UNION DELEGATIONS WITH STUDENT REPRESENTATIVES AND POLITICAL LEADERS LED BY M. MENDES-FRANCE.

BEFORE THE COFFINS WERE LOWERED INTO THE GRAVES THERE WERE SPEECHES BY STUDENT AND UNION LEADERS. AROUND THE GRAVES AN AREA WITH A RADIUS OF ABOUT A HUNDRED YARDS WAS COVERED WITH WREATHS AND FLOWERS. OUTSIDE THE CEMETERY THE ROAD WAS JAMMED WITH SILENT PEOPLE.