DAYS IN RUSSIA.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVI, Issue 141, 17 June 1935, Page 5

DAYS IN RUSSIA.

HUMAN LABORATORY. NEW ZEALANDEFTS COMMENTS NATION WITH ONE PURPOSE. i Combining humorous incidents with observations of fact, Mr. Lan Donnelly, speaking at a Rotary Club luncheon in Christchurch, discredited popular pictures of Soviet Russia as a country where it is neither safe nor pleasant to travel, and where the people have lost all hope and are something closely approaching slaves. He said that the Central Executive of the Soviet Union had been successful in giving the heterogeneous population a common purpose, i Mr. Donnelly hegan by stating that his observations had been purely of a ! superficial nature, and in talking on "Days in Soviet Russia" he did not wish to be regarded as an authority. When his friends in London heard that he was about to visit Russia they did everything in their power to dissuade him. J. B. Priestley remarked that he would I be delighted to go, too, but the hotels I were bad and the meals irregular. Until I it was possible to get jjood food, and I often, he would not visit Russia. An I Oxford don. when informed of the pros- j pective visit, advised Mr. Donnelly to take plenty of insecticide if he wanted j a good night's sleep, and also to imitate the Chocolate Soldier and always travel with a bar in his pocket. There were other critics who said that even if he went he would only see what the Soviet j wanted him to see. | "Not an Expert." j However, he went, but he was not an j expert. There were people who spenti a week in Russia and then wrote books j about it, but anyone who expected to • get the inside story of the Five Years j, Plan was doomed to disappointment, h He was merelv a superficial observer-j] His visits embraced the two nwjwJc cities, Moscow and Leningrad, in,-t ( j first place he wished to say no reason why peoplo should be fngw U

ened to study Russia. In fact, they should study Russia, as it was the greatest laboratory of humanity in the contemporary world. It was interesting, too. Russia was not only a laboratory, but an important one. The country was ruled by the Central Executive from the Kremlin, and what it had done, or was striving to do, was to give the 160,000,000 people composed of 180 nationalities and speaking 150 ianguages or dialects, a common purpose. So far as Mr. Donnelly could see from his superficial observations, they had succeeded. Meals Excellent. Turning to his particular experiences, Mr. Donnelly said that although he was not travelling absolutely saloon he had a nice little suite in his hotel in Moscow and a good room in Leningrad. So ! far as the food was concerned, the state- j merits of Priestley were preposterous, j Meals were excellent and regular and, I furthermore, the humanity of the hours for meals should appeal to all present at j the luncheon. Breakfast could bo i |taken from nin,e until two, and con-! jsjsted of an omelette, toast and a glass I of tea. In the matter of tea drinking the Russians had the New Zealanders beaten by the gallon. They were gluttons for tea. Dinner, the main meal of ! the day, might be had from 3 p.m. until j 8 p.m. Russians had a genius for mak-'J nig delicious soups, and in addition the j j average meal would consist of cutlets or cricken and a fair sweet. A bottle of j excellent Crimean wine could be had for 1/6 to 2/. or one could have another|. ration of the übiquitous tea. On the !food score there were no complicates • land the hotel accommodation was excel- • lent. He did not sight a bug during his whole stay, but he had seen one oi I two ill Bloomsbury. ! Competent Linguists. « I When the tourist arrived he _ was } taken in hand by girl guides, or interureters, who were marvellously com- J )e t e ,,t' linguists.. His guide was named VW md spoke English without a trace J \'f ni . „,it. On his first night in Lenin\nra<] '■» took advantage of the arrangement by which,, if the tourist paid the j price of a ticket, one of the girls would ' accompany him to a theatre. He ques- i I tioned Fania on several points, the first being whether she ever longed for pretty I clothes. She answered no. She did not t want clothes yet. There was "the V Cause." During the evening 'she asked t him his view o£ the relative merits of g

Shelley and Keats and talk on literary matters could have continued indefinitely. Atheistic Philosophy. When questioned on the score of religion, Fania answered that it was all right, but did not mean anything to her, or her generation. The idea that religion was forbidden was wrong and there were twenty-five churches in Leningrad, where anyone was free to worship. Fania also said that if the Five-Year Plan succeeded economic order would still be the root of all happiness. This was the national outlook. There was no doubt that atheism was the absolute philosophy of the modern Russian. He thought Russians exceedingly mystical bv nature and that religious instinct had been directed into other channels. It was this impulse which caused crowds to line up in queues to see Lenin's tomb in Moscow. Uio fanatical worship of the dynamo was another perversion of the religious in- ! stinet. . ~ , , ~ , ! Mr Donnellv said that hospitals j seemed good and were doing wonderful I word In addition to the usual departI meiits there were others where weakj ling children over the age of 16 years were given the correct food to build I theni up into healthy beingsj Soldiers in Art Gallery. In Moscow he discovered an almost fanatical quest for culture. The theory was that, at present, it was necessary to work seven hours a day, but if all went well in five or ten years it might be necessary to work only four or five hours a day. Therefore it was necessary to find ways to occupy themselves when the days of leisure came.

On one occasion he saw men of the Red Army being conducted round a famous art gallery and instructed in the finer points of the pictures. He would like to see the day when a detachment of the Guards would be taken round the Tate Gallery, and he would like to hear their comments.

Pressure of mass opinion had surprised him. He thought Russia, of the big countries, the most puritanical in the world. Remorseless pressure of mass opinion was responsible for this.

In conclusion Mr. Donnelly said that he enjoyed his trip to Russia very much, and met with nothing but kindness wherever he went. But ho was glad that the Russians were conducting their great experiment on themselves alone.