EXIT THE GONDOLIER

Evening Star, Issue 18809, 6 December 1924, Page 17

EXIT THE GONDOLIER

HODERHISIHG VENICE. 1 Who goes to Venice to be in a hurry ? 1 And who would wish to bid farewell to the picturesque figures who propel your boat along those water avenues of romance ? The fiat of the Mayor of Venice is reported to have gone forth ordering every large boat and gondola in Venice to be equipped with an electric motor, and all this to be accomplished within two years. London papers are crying out in dismay at this modern vulgarisation of the world’s playground. The ‘ Daily Telegraph ’ conjectures that Signor Giordano must be a pupil of Marinetti, the founder of tho Futurist movement in art and letters, “ who clamored for the destruction of all museums and monuments of the past in Italy and reserved his most violent diatribes for the preserving of the j ancient play and romance of this very Venice.” Reading politics into the question, this London paper, perhaps unwarrantably, sees the hidden hand of Mussolini. “All accounts agree as to the remarkable change which has come over the national life of Italy since Fascism took it in hand. Wo hear now of tho impending reform of Venice, In less than two years tile last gondola, will have disappeared from the waters of the Queen of the Adri ; alic. It may seem incredible, but it is true, that this has been ordained deliberately by the head of the city administrationj Signor Giordano, who lately signed an agreement with a' local electrical engineering company, by the terms of which every largo boat and gondola in Venice is to bo fitted, within the space of twenty •months, with an electrically-driven motor. Signor Giordano is, it seems, a Royal High Commissioner appointed ns acting mayor, presumably because of differences of opinion between tho Fascist Government and tho titular mayor. There is nothing out of tho common in that, but what can not be usual is such an act of absolutism as tho decreed transformation of all gondolas into motor boats, in spite of the passionate protests of artists, antiquaries, hotelkeepers, tourist agencies, and, of course, gondoliers, whose ancient order is not merely threatened, but .apparently doomed Irrevocably to extinction. " The Commissioner’s exercise of his powers is a matter with which we have no concern, but all the world is painfully interested in tho disappearance of what for centuries has been a thing essential to the romance and beauty of Venice. A gondola without a gondolier, without the long, sweeping oar, and tho graceful movement of its wielder, will be no gondola, it need hardly be said. To fit up a gondola as a motor boat is like running a tramway through Stonehenge, or crowning the Lord Mayor of London in his panoply of state with a bowler hat. It is clear that tho local interests think so, or think that those visiting Venice will think so, in which they are undoubtedly right. Old Londoners havo lamented, and still lament, tho passing of the hansom cab, with which tho life of our capital did suffer an artistic loss; but what is that compared with tho electrification of the gondola, and the transformation of the picturesque person standing and swaying at the oar into a jiochanio crouching over an engine 7” The ‘Manchester Guardian’ decries the destruction, in the contemplated change, of a “ tradition as distinctive and beautiful as any in Europe.” It speaks up for the gondolier: “ Venice must always bo ono of the loveliest places in the world, as it is ono of the most romantic, but will not some of its romance vanish with its gondolas and gondoliers? Yet both arc under sentence. The edict has gone, forth that within loss than two years the gondola must be superseded by the motor boat. Every boat, of whatever sort—with the exception of a few private ones—must be motor-driven, and, as the idea of a motordriven gondola is inconceivable, clearly the gondola must disappear along with the gondolier. It is a little rough on the practitioners of a beautiful art, with their inherited skill and their inherited cries, as they skim through the narrow channels and twist round their devious ways; it is hard, too, on the visitor who loves both tho boatman and his boat, and will feel Venice to be hardly Venice without them. Venice, too, may suffer a little, and it is hard to see what will gain, except the local company, which has received a monopoly for the supply of motors. A paternal Government has also decreed that within four years Rome shall know nothing but motors, and the draught horse must disappear. As some of the main streets of Rome are surely among tho narrowest of any great city in tho world, there may be a good deal to be said for this by the public, if not by the horse-owners. But what a thing it is to have a Government which knows what is good for you so much better than you know yourself.” Vaporetti and motor boats already ply along tho Grand Canal, and are a menace to a. gondola, which is an expensive boat to build, and can be owned only by rather prosperous boatmen. Tho London ‘Evening Standard’ takes a hand: “ The motor boat already snorts and explodes its way along tho canals of Venice. There are not only private motor boats, but a whole fleet of pale brown and much-brassed affairs plying for hire. They annoy tho gondoliers intensely, not only as trade rivals, but because they cause a ‘ wash ’ which damages tho gondolas. ‘“The life a of a gondola used to be fifty or sixty years,' I was told on my last visit. ‘Now it won’t last a quarter of that time, for all day long it is smacking and bumping against the waves caused by the motor boats.’ So it seems that, unless stronger gondolas are built, they will disappear for reasons other than economic. ’ ’