SQUALOR IN RUSSIA.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 61, Issue 69, 2 January 1941, Page 4

SQUALOR IN RUSSIA.

Conditions in Russia as he observed them recently were described by Professor Lancelot Hogben. He was lecturing in Norway at the time of the Nazi invasion and returned to London via Russia, Japan and -the United States. “We flew from Stockholm to Moscow, stayed there for a time in squalor in the best hotel in town —the table linen looked as though it had not been changed since the purge of 1935 and that was the Mctropble, widely known as the best hotel,” Professor Hogben related. “We then boarded the Trans-Siberian Railway and for 10 days travelled across Russia, where all of our money was taken from us, though we did manage to obtain passage to Japan. I cannot believe that every one who visited Russia and approved of it when it was fashionable to visit there and ap prove of it- could have seen anything but a few show places. Surely all of them could not have lied. The country is one vast slum. Outside of Moscow I saw nothing that compared favourably with even the worst slums of Glasgow Moscow offers little enough; the rest of the country offers nothing. It is perfectly evident that the attempt to industrialise has broken completely down. If the engine is running, it is not in.gear.”