LIVING IN TEHERAN

Press, Volume CII, Issue 30151, 7 June 1963, Page 2

LIVING IN TEHERAN

Expensive And Uneasy

Life in Teheran was sometimes uneasy for Mrs O. H. Walker, of Christchurch, but when she left Persia recently she did not suspect any undercurrent of opposition to the Shah’s land reforms now revealed in rioting there. Mrs Walker has recently returned to Christchurch with her husband and twin daughters after Mr Walker worked for a year there to train science teachers. Mrs Walker said her children, Marjory and Felicity, who are eight, made friends with children of all nationalities who went to the British School in Teheran. “Their best friends were two little Japanese girls who cried when we left.” The children had excellent schooling, all the teachers were certificated English teachers, and the school had a very high standard,” she said. The children had to be driven or sent to school in a taxi, as it was not safe to let them out of sight, said Mrs Walker, and houses had Bft walls “There is dreadful poverty You only had to go out into the street and there were people begging ” "The cost of living is terrific and everything is of

poor quality. We rented a furnished house for £lOO a month and, as well, we had to pay for water, garbage collection, electricity and other extras.

“We had to boil all our drinking water and we could not eat fruit or uncooked food without disinfecting it with Candy’s crystals. When w e arrived in Teheran we had to live in a boardinghouse and we had to eat the food. Both • children were ill and one had to be sent to hospital. “Although the cost of living is very high, taxi fares are cheap. You can go two blocks or 20 blocks for the equivalent of Is 3d," said Mrs Walker.

“Nowhere in the world does traffic compare with that in Teheran,” she said. “The only rule observed is the righthand rule. The driving is horrifying.”