RIVIERA'S SILENT CASINOS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXVII, Issue 23767, 21 September 1940, Page 10 (Supplement)

RIVIERA'S SILENT CASINOS

Gaiety and Colour Banned On Famous

FOR the first time in its history the French Riviera is a dead coast, writes Walter Farr, in the Daily Mail, London. Monte Carlo, Cannes, Nice, Juan les Pins, and the Cap d'Antilies have been transformed by official regulations into a series of gloomy towns and villages, with empty beaches, silent casinos, shuttered hotels. The new rulers of France, toppling toward Totalitarianism, have decided to copy the Germans even at the seaside. And, like so many imitators, they have gone one step farther. "English Atmosphere" All the world knows that the bathing crowds with the latest in smart colours, styles, and beach dresses were one of the most famous attractions of the Riviera. Now, oven if a woman walks along the promenade in a dress with brightish colours, or wears smartlooking shoes, she's looked on as abnormal and made to feel uncomfortable. A former American resident in France who crossed into Spain summed iip the present state of the Riviera seaside resorts in these words: ''.fust a string of places with an absolutely provincial atmosphere." Imagine the Riviera becoming provincial!

The French-authorities are making a savage attack on "the English ntmosphere" which as prevailed in places like Cannes since King KdWard the Seventh's time. The statue of Edward the Seventh in Cannes and many other monuments to Knglish Royalty and personalities along the const are being referred to by French people as "the sort of thing that should now be removed." One by one they nre shutting down those Knglish teashops built and equipped to make Knglish people feel at home on the Riviera. Knglish officers on leave, retired Knglish colonels resident on the Riviera, and elderly Knglish women, each with a, little dog wrapped in a little woolly, jacket, made up the clientele. Of course, they're all gone now —some back to Kngland, some, unlucky enough not to get away in time, to German concentration camps after beinjj; caught in occupied territory. Unlucky Gamble I wonder what the old Riviera cabmen, who used to get enormous tips from Knglish pi ople right to the end. will do now? Many of the Knglish who had to evacuate quickly were forced to leave behind their yachts, which f am told

are still being held in Cannes' picturesque little port. The present situation means bankruptcy for i\t least half ol the Riviera hotel proprietors. When early this summer I called at a big hotel at Le Travas, the owner welcomed me with a long speech and said: "I am just opening. 1 am putting down all new tennis courts and am anticipating heavy bookings and plenty of English in spite of the war " The Riviera made a bold, optimistic gamble on coming events, and it lost.

The French are saying that when this war is over the Riviera will not be. allowed to recover the atmosphere prevailing before the invasion. 'lt will, they say, be a sterner place, "conforming to the best principles of French life." As a result of German propaganda, the French are acquiring a keener and keener hatred of foreigners, and it was foreigners who largely created the Riviera atmosphere. Meanwhile, the Cote d'Azur lies deserted and almost forgotten, While the new France tries to take shape.