THE OLD WORLD

Evening Star, Issue 17329, 17 April 1920, Page 2

THE OLD WORLD

A VISITOR'S IMPRESSIONS, Professor T. D. Adams, who occupies the chair of classics at Otago University, recently re tamed to Dunedin after an absence of over two years from New Zealand. Professor Adams courteously responded to a request by a member of our staff to give some of his Experiences. “ You visited the Continent, X understand T” “ Yes; I had seven we elm there in October and November ot last year, in wh*:h I ran through Italy and Sicily, and got as far as Athene.” “ Was travelling expensive?” “ Very, -In epite of the exchange being so much in our favor. For example, the three days’ run from Athens to Marseilles cost £sl 10s—-that is, lOgs a day—-said botn table and accommodation were quite ordinary, jii Italy the rate of exchange rose frbm 43 to 52 lire to the English £ in the course of a few days, and with that advantage on Englishman could buy more cheaply in Italy than in London. But Greece has contrived not only to prosper financially during the war, but to keep the rate of exchange greatly in her own favor, ■ When I was there it was 23 drachms to tie as against the normal 25, the French 41, and the Italian 62. Consequently one found Athens ruinously expensive— an impression that was emphatically confirmed by representatives of various firms concerned in the big exhibition of British industries that was held in the Zappeion at Athens in-October and November of last year. “In sharp contrast with the prosperity of Greece was the serious poverty of Italy, which doubtless aggravated the strong anti-Entente feeling that was so noticeable throughout Italy, especially In the north. The Fiume episode was being exploited to the full for party purposes" in the- November elections. Among the numberless placards I remember one which declared that the great disaster for Italy had been suffered, not at Caporetto, but * at way, the Italians have no respect for their statues and other public monuments—not even for their churches and cathedrals. For instance, in Naples the statues were almost entirely covered with posters and placards in favor of the rival candidates; and at Syracuse the cathedral was defaced with posters and roughly-painted legends such. _as * yiva Giaraca,’ ‘ Viva DU Giovanni.’ ‘ Viva i himingo.’ Feeling was running high even over in Sicily, and on the eve of the election I saw bodies of. troops being moved to places (especially Catania) where trouble was feared. One or two of the towns I was in gave me the impression of being hotbeds of Bolshevism, bit of course a tourist's impressions arc likely to be very wide of the mark - . Nevertheless, I have no doubt at all that it is only the extraordinary popularity of the present King that saves the present dynasty from overthrow.

“ J- n Italy tne number and confusion ot the parties is verv Lewilderinn- to a stranger, and, I believe, hardly "less bewildering to large sections of the Italians themselves. It is surely characteristic of the Neapolitans that, whereas in Rome there were, I think, only five lists, Naples boasted 11. All the rames I don’t remember : but there were, of course, the Combatants and the Democrats and the Republicans and the v and the Socialists and the and the Isolated*. be one or two offshoots from the official Socialist Party. Out of all this complication, however, there emerged two strong and well-organised parties—the Socialists and the new Partite Popolare Ttaliano. Tins latter is a church party, and it can be imagined that, when in Italy the Roman Catholic Church, runs a party on democratic principles, that party will have a wide appeal. _ “An. interesting novelty in these elections was the appearance for the first time of candidates from the humbler callings. _ Hitherto, I "was told, even the Socialist candidates had been drawn from the educated classes: but the Catholic Popular Party seemed to bo taking the lead in putting forward an occasional workman or peasant. Of course, the lack of educational facilities in Southern Unhand Sicily is appalling. I cannot, vouch for the accuracy of this, but I was told by one Italian who seemed to be in a position to know that over 60 per cent, of the Southern Italians have had no schooling. The Government, however eager to advance education, are apparently 100 poor to establish an adequate system, and part of what is done—probably only a little, but still some part of" it—is financed, for example, bv Masonic bodies. And yet this poverty-stricken nation must needs spend millions on the erection of —a new Treasury, no less! This enormous splotch of white and gilt with which the capitol is plastered covers a larger area than either the Colosseum or Rt. Peter’s. But, then, it is characteristic of your Italian that he will always erect a building sooner than mend a road, however unnecessary the building and however impassable the road; and the very striking contrast of palatial buildings and squalid poverty in immediate juxtaposition keeps recalling to one’s mind Hilaire Belloc's happy description of the Italians as the impoverished heirs of a great time.”

“ Did you hear any good music? 1 ' “ Yes, though nothing in Italy. There the opera season does not begin until the day after Christmas, and the only opera I saw was a second or third rate performance of ‘La Giacbnda ’ in Rome by a company of about the same standard as a provincial Carl Rosa Company, only the orchestra was superior to the London Car! Rosa- The one thing I heard strummed on every piano in every hotel I stayed in throughout Italy and Sicily was ‘ The Broken Doll ’! In Milan, however, as I came, down on a Sunday morning from an excursion among the statues on the roof of the cathedral. I heard the choir singing an anthem. The rich quality of the voices arrested mo, and was most satisfying. But for beauty and sweetness and devotional character the choir of King’s College Chapel at Cambridge and Dr Walford Davies’s clvaa; in the Terrule Church in London seem to me to be unrivalled. I heard the same Dr Walford Davies give a very brilliant lecture. On a midsummer Saturday afternoon of the hottest that Londoft ban provide lie addressed a very uncomfortably crowded audience of W.K. A. students for exactly two boom on ‘How to Make a Tune,’ and in spite of the oppressive heat and the

•diccomfort not once did the interest of the audience flag, and frequently it was roiwed to demonstrative enthusiasm.

Of opera, of course, one hsd the greatest feast ut Cerent Garden—old favorites like Melba and Kirkby L-nrm, and newer favorites like our own Rosina- Buckmann and Annseau and Martinclli. The staging was a revelation, that of ‘Aida’ being specially magnificent. The orchestra, too. was supremely fine—in fact, the contributor -of the music notes in the ‘Daily Telegraph ’ claimed that it was the finest operatic orchestra in Europe. 0? the conductors Mngnone got wonderful precision _ and compactness of tone •' Albert Coates’s quiet, magnetic personality one associates particularly with Faust: while Sir Thomas Beeoham himself, in spite of a somewhat irritating superfhiitv of flourishes and mannerisms, is, of course, a masterly conductor, and a-> a producer he has put England under mi incalculable debt.”