VANDALS FEARED IN OLD VENICE.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 17837, 4 May 1926, Page 3

VANDALS FEARED IN OLD VENICE.

MODERNISING SCHEME HAS KEEN OPPONENTS.

~ ROME, March 3. f ount \ dm spoke this week at Vcn ice. not only as Chancellor of the Exchequer, but as a Venetian with the interests of his native city very much at heart. His references to the necesSlt y of connecting Venice with the mainland will be read with as much interest by foreigners as by the Venetians themselves.

1 to the exigencies of modern life the isolation of the city becomes a pressing problem; how is poetical aloofness to be allied to convenience and prosperity? Count Volpi laid stress upon th§ fact that Venice was in need of new buildings, that her beauty must not be tampered with, and that she must keep her ascendancy as chief town of Vcnetia and not sink into apathetic isolation by being cut off from the mainland.

Referring to the new port of Marghcra and the industrial centre outside \ enice, for which he has been responsible, the Count said that in creating the city of the future he had acted on the principle of cause rather than effect. "If only Marghera had been thought, of some years ago,” he added, we shotild have been spared the eyesore of industrial establishments in the heart of Venice.”

The Minister would be in favour of widening the existing railway bridge and of running a rapid tram service between Venice and the mainland, but he is equally firm in his opinion that these lines of communication, which would include a good road for motorcars, should not extend beyond strictly necessary limitations, and precautions are to be taken whereby they cannot be extended at any future date. If, for instance, the bridge prospect meant bringing trams and motors into the Piazzo of San Marco, then he would oppose it with all his power. Many people, including the disting-

guished writer on Venetian art, Senator Molmenti, fear that the projected innovations may prove to be the thin edge of the wedge which must inevitably alter the exceptional character of Venice, and Count Volpi's declarations are reassuring. I am also told that the Premier is determined to prevent any act of vandalism in Venice. It is even reported that he expressed a pious wish that some Fascist law were capable of blowing up the hideous iron suspension bridge by the station.