CLEANSING SWITZERLAND.

Press, Volume LVI, Issue 16841, 22 May 1920, Page 10

CLEANSING SWITZERLAND.

THE ABOLITION OF GAMING TABLES. (SPECIALLY XVETTTEK FOB "THE TOES 3.") (Br Mrs Jtrr.TAS Granpf.j GENEVA, March 15. Nearlv three-quarters of ft ; ago the Swiss decided to abolu.i . -ablins dons, and incorporated , decision in their Constitution. - i theless with the increasing import.m of the tourist traffic various rcs.rtscon-1 trived to open what the}* called cas and in these, verv quietly, gammg tables were installed, where petits, chcvaux, and other games of chanw went on merrily all day, and some! j all ni S ;t. In fact, srme of -those casinos became miniature Monte Carlos iij 1910. indeed, despite the sok \ ! hibition of gambling 6 a loo us ni Su zerhiml, there SK Lugano, Montreux, and man. In .iU, these places, strange to sn , - — subject was allowed to garnile but on } visitors and tourists w Inch — • method whereby the Swiss htucl pro prietors and casino contr. to drive a coach and six through Uic Swiss Constitution. , ' I But the Swiss themselves were not. pleased with this state of things, and shortly before the war more than 117,000 Swiss citizens, all of cour: " 0 voters, signed a petition demanding tho closing of nil existing gambling hells, and an absolute prohibition of opening anv others, whether inside, or outside ■casinos. This petition ougnt legnl v to have been submitted to a mcreirhirn within a year of its presentation to Pai--1 iamcnt but. doubtless because hotel and tourist interests are so powerful, in Switzerland, it has been do ayed and i delnved, and only now is tne matter ! renl'v come to the vcte of t.:o ps^ple. The F-ench Swiss, who have never been slaves to foreign tourists, aro championing the cause of what they call cleansing Switzerland—that is, tho cause of those who would abolish existino- gambling facilities and prevent the creation or anv mors* iLSpcciflllv do they want to rid Switzerland of gambling rooms before the Leogne of Nations settles in Geneva. But- tho GoI vernment is such a Mr 1' acing-bot h- ' ways that, although it cannot_ forbid t-lw referendum, yet it is putting before the people as an alternative the: most elastic countcr-proposals, worded j in such a way that nothing could bo easier than for anyone to have gambi ling rooms if he wants them, lie has | only to pretend that "thev are for tho i purposes of recreation or of public. i utility" ftl'c latter can always bo drnoj :if any portion, however small, of tho ! profits be devoted to chaxitablo purj poses), and he can have a Monte Carlo i at once. . Tho propaganda now being carried on by those interested in tho maintenance of gambling is as extraordinary as it is amusing. For instance, the head office of the Swiss Hotelkeepers' Association is sending out to all Swiss newspapers, a series of articles, in Fren h, ! German, or Italian, as the case may | be, asseverating the innocence of Swiss j casinos, and insisting that these casinos . (and, of course, their gambling tables), are necessary for foreigners, who come 1 ,to Switzerland for rest, refreshment, or \ "to calm their nerves and recover their j capacity for work." Tho best way, apparency, to calm your nerves and re- ■ cover your capacity for work is to sit ■at a gaming table —according to tho ' Swiss Hotelkeepers' Association. We 1 are also assured by them that rich foreigners who visit Switzerland to calm their nerves by trying their luck at games of chance, are _ really j thinking how they can help S.viss bos- ! pitals and charitable institutions, and . , now they can earn a little money to ' help embellish Swis3 touiist resorts. 1 i For it is on these most worthy objects, ; we are assured, that the profits, at any j ■ rate part of them, from gaming tab es; '■ in Swiss casinos, are really expended. And. a whole farrago of other argu-j merits, of which it is hard _to say l whether they are the more ingenious or ingenuous, trying to prove that j is whitej are being offered to any Swiss | editor simple enough to publish them, j 1 The "Journal de Geneve," the leading ; French-Swiss paper, however, holds up these arguments to merciless ridicule. Swiss hotelkeepers seem to imagine • that casinos cannot exist without gaming tables, that Swiss hotels cannot contrive to exist without casincs, and that . Switzerland cannot manage to exist i without her hotel industry. Suppress t j casinos, they • argue, and you will deal; i a deatk-blow to the hotel av.d tourist in- j dustry, as it is called. But Swiss hotel-1' j keepers do not realise that the great 1 majority of people, not British and Americans alone, who visit Switzerland ' aro attracted to it by anything and : eveiytjiing except cas:nos. Quite as j 1 many of them would there were ' not a single cas : no in the country; per- • haps, indeed, more m'ght come, and a j: better class. To argue that gambling is ! i good_ for the nerves -ind restorative is | | positively amazing. And now that tho ■ Supreme Council nrges economy and avoidance of all extravagance and un- i necessary luxury, the last tliinjg we I oucht to do is to enter a gaming room. It is always somewhat difficult to predict which way a whole will vote, but in all likelihood the Swiss people will vote for the suppression of every gaming table within their territory, ana for making it impossible for any more t-o bo established. i What is extraordinary is that all these Swiss gamine tables have been managed by non-Swiss, and in Geneva, in particular, where high stakes have been the rule, the gambling den is in tho hands of a French subject. It would certainly be unseemly, to snv the j 'enst, and none realise this bctter'than i th© Genevese themselves, if the League' of Nations and a gambling don should! ( be virtually side by side.