A REVOLUTION ON THE RIVIERA

Evening Post, Volume CXXIV, Issue 63, 11 September 1937, Page 27

A REVOLUTION ON THE RIVIERA

A silent revolution has occurred in the sunshine of the French Riviera, says a writer in the "Christian Science Monitor." The men and women who are now rushing down to the Midi are unlike the winter habitues. French workers have taken summer possession of the azure coast from Marseilles to Menton.

A year ago the Front Populaire Government in France established "paid holidays." Those employees who had worked for twelve months were entitled by law to a fortnight's liberty at regular wages. Some millions of workers found themselves free, with money in their pockets, at a given moment last year. This year there are more than ever released from their occupations.

In addition, the railways offer cheap excursions. So that, joyously, and a little dazzled, French workers are making for the famous resorts of which they have heard, but which they have never visited. -It is tiot intended, of course, to imply that all French workers are unaccustomed to holidays. They took time off, and certain popular seaside places, especially in the north, were crowded in the hot months of the year. It is true that a considerable proportion of employers, without legal compulsion, paid their workers during holidays; but these voluntary concessions were deemed. insufficient, for they "penalised" the good employer, and offered no guarantee to the worker.

It was Sweden which brought the matter forward in Europe officially, as far back as 1919, holding it essential for the well-being of employees "that they should aojoy each year a certain period of absolute rest." It took 14 years for the subject to reach the

agenda of the conference, though an interesting report was drawn up, and the Governments were consulted.

In the meantime, the practice of giving annual paid holidays was spreading in many countries; and the task of the International Labour Office is now to bring the backward countries into line, and to co-ordinate legislation to convert a "privilege" into a "right." The Riviera as a whole has always been to workers, except for the southerners themselves, an inaccessifrb, mysterious land of luxury. A centi) like Nice caters for all classes, for it is a city of considerable size; and there are likewise a few special Meccas of the artistic fraternity; but Cannes relied on its rich clientele, and Menton on its leisurely sojourners. As for the smaller places, they were snobbishly exclusive. Monte Carlo, not strictly in France but set on the littoral of the Mediterranean, had a reputation of its own. There was plenty of poverty jostling riches there, but it was a kind of speculative or parasitic poverty. In short, the Cote d'Azur was "reserved" for those who are sufficiently favoured with this world's goods.

More, the Riviera used to be purely a winter resorc. Now it is decreed to be a summer resort, too. Why not? It is not appreciably hotter than the north. And it is not too hot for idleness.

How the hotelkeepers of the Riviera, after the first moment of surprise, welcomed the workers heartily—the more so that their establishments may now keep open summer and winter! : These new arrivals are noisier, less mannered, unfamiliar with fashion, and they shock the more conservative hotel servants. But the necessary adjustments will soon be made; the purely artificial differences will be estimated at their proper, value.