NOT SO GAY NOW

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume 50, Issue 3056, 31 March 1941, Page 8

NOT SO GAY NOW

VAST CHANGE ON RIVIERA EVEN ROYALTY RATIONED YACHTS USED AS RESIDENCES The arrival of the annual holiday season in the French Riviera, v..i.re millionaires and marquises sorted and spent in gay abandon, has seen a vast change. Normally, 50,000 American and British tourists would be basking in the Mediterranean sun. Now there are about 4000 foreigners, most of them Englishmen, who are unable to leave and who are scrambling for rations and coal like everyone else. The Casinos, except in Monte Carlo, are closed, the hotels are only a fifth filled, and the pretentious villas are empty.

Where shiny, sleek automobiles from the United States and England used to stand under the watchful eyes of uniformed servants are now only- rows of bicycles under the care of a bellboy.

The flower battles which usually are held early in February with processions of decorated automobiles and showers of flowers were not even considered.

Residents are standing for hours in line, since everybody is required to appear personally for his 100 grams (34 ounces) of butter,. 50 grams of cheese, and one egg. Still anchored in Riviera ports as residences of their owners are the yachts of Prince Andrew of Greece, •'uncle of Greek King George 11., who had his windowis battened down for the cold weather, and the former Khedive of Egypt, Abbas Halmi, who lives on his rations 'and asks no favours.