MOSCOW READY

Auckland Star, Volume LXXII, Issue 177, 29 July 1941, Page 9

MOSCOW READY

BLACKOUT NIGHT EERIE EXPERIENCE WATCHERS EVERYWHERE A blackout in the Russian manner is described here by one of the best known of the modern American writers. Mr. CaldweU and his wife. Margaret Bourke-White. the noted photographer, arrived In Soviet Russia a few days before the Russo-German war began. (By ERSKINE CALDWELL.) MOSCOW, July 2. I have just spent a night on the blacked-out streets of Moscow. It was an unforgettable experience. In order to set foot outside of one's home after midnight, a special permit is needed. Judging by the few score of civilians I encountered in this city of 4,000,000 after 10 o'clock, a very small number of these passes has been issued. One must have urgent and essential business in order to obtain the consent of the authorities.

A few minutes before midnight I was on Gorky Street, the main thoroughfare of Moscow. Men and women were running in various directions, obviously trying to get home before the stroke of tho hour. In the darkness an occasional automobile creeped along and, as the minutes drew shorter, the drivers of most of the cars leaned out and offered rides to pedestrians. On the dot. of the hour, the streets were suddenly bare. At the intersections there were dim green and rgd lights in the hands of the traffic control, but automobiles were without lights of any kind. As I stood on the curb I could see two or three figures moving through the darkness toward me. As they came toward me I felt instinctively for my pass and in an instant it was demanded of me. Smoking Permitted Without the help of a flashlight or match, the permit was thoroughly inspected in silence. The officials, a woman and two men, then asked me some questions in Russian. After I had haltingly uttered a few words in their tongue, they asked me whether I were British or German. I replied that I was an American. All was well, the inspection was over, and the three figures moved away into the night as shadowy and mysteriously as they had approached.

Cupping a match in my hand, I lighted a cigarette, trembling so violently for fear a bullet would whizz by my ear and it gave me small satisfaction. However, a few minutes later I saw other cigarettes being lighted and I was relieved to know that smoking was permitted. As I walked up the street I passed many doorways, and it seemed as though every one of them was occupied by a shadowy watcher, At the corners there was always one or more of the policing force.

After another half hour I was stopped and my permit demanded of me the second time. During the time of curfew I was stopped ten times and the inspection and questioning, whether by the policing force or by night watchers, were invariably the same. I continued walking through the streets, rarely encountering anyone, but aware each minute that there were dozens of pairs of eyes watching me from the darkened doorways. Like Blackened Icicles Then suddenly a whistle blasted the daylights out of me. If a oneton bomb had exploded in the street I probably would have been less shaken. Almost simultaneously an automobile, of which I had not been aware, screeched to a breath-taking stop a few feet from me. Out of the darkness one of the policing force appeared and questioned the driver. His permit was inspected for several minutes and then the car rolled away. As it began to get lighter, buildings that I had not suspected of being in existence gradually rose from the earth and jutted like blackened icicles into the sky. The city began to take on shape and substance. I could see familiar-looking landmarks that brought me back to reality. I was in Moscow after all, not on some planet whose sun had expired. As I walked toward home, people began emerging from apartments and dwellings. ' Some were hurrying to work, others were coming out to observe the newness of a new day. Trucks, passenger cars and motorcycles thundered over teh pavement, traffic lights appeared in their usual positions and curtains and shades were drawn from over windows. Life in Moscow had once more resumed its normal routine.—"Auckland Star" and N.A.N.A.