RUSSIAN STUDENTS’ IMPRESSIONS ON LONDON VISIT

Press, Volume XC, Issue 27498, 4 November 1954, Page 13

RUSSIAN STUDENTS’ IMPRESSIONS ON LONDON VISIT

(Rec. 9.30 p.ni.) LONDON, November 2. The British welfare state pays too much attention to docs and not enough to people, according to a group of Russian tourists who recently visited London, says the Moscow correspondent of the Associated Press

Mr Igor Kobzev, spokesman for the Russian students who toured England as guests of the National Union of Students, said: "We were shocked to see packages of food marked ‘Made for Cats apd Dogs’ being unloaded from ships in Bristol. “In London there are restaurants, barber shops, and baths for dogs. It is to be wished that there were more cars for the people.” Mr Kobzev said, however, that the students left with the deepest admiration for the English people. “We became acquainted with outstanding treasures of culture and we found new friends. There are two Londons—one of romantic attractiveness and the other a London which

some of our party try not to mention. ■At 1 p.m. the lights had to be lit and the neon advertisements went on but gloomy sky and fog only emphasised the peculiar and stern beauty of London. "Romantic Attractiveness” “We could understand why English love their capital. There Is a romantic attractiveness in Westminster—the spires in granite, the facades of ancient palaces, and in the bridges across the Thames. “There is a very particular beauty in the grey colours of the narrow streets. But somehow it did not seem to fit in with the coloured advertisements on red buses.

‘‘On one hoarding there is a portrait of Napoleon. We were astounded. Bonaparte is telling Josephine he would with pleasure drink the beer of such and such a firm. “The East End of London seems another city. People live in houses or one-storey barracks. “There are many contrasts. There is puritan strictness of morals and even a fanatical adherence to the traditions of religion, alongside the immoral productions of Hollywood, banal comics, and low public houses.”