IN HOT WATER

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31144, 22 August 1966, Page 13

IN HOT WATER

(N Z P A-Reuter —Copyright; MOSCOW, August 21. Doting parents who I send hot-water bottles filled with vodka to ■ their conscript sons were warned yesterday that they are undermining discipline in the Soviet Army. The Army newspaper “Red Star" indicated that smuggling of vodka, wine and spirits in parcels from home is becoming a problem, which sometimes leads to soldiers breaking out of camp and committing civil crimes. Parents, uncles, aunts, and friends were using a number of devices to break Army rules by sending spirits, to servicemen. Sometimes they had bottles in boxes specially made with false bottoms; sometimes bottles were baked in cakes, i

The most frequent method, the “Red Star” said, was to send a soldier an innocentlooking rubber hot-water bottle, filled with vodka. The hidden gifts “very often lead to violation of military discipline, and influence the future service of the soldier. They are sometimes the cause of extraordinary incidents.” the newspaper said.

The “Red Star” made the disclosure in publishing a sergeant’s letter appealing to parents and other relatives to stop sending bottled gifts to Army camps. Soviet crime experts are calling for stepped-up production of wine and soft drinks and an advertising campaign to make them more popular among the vodka-loving Russians.

They blame the nation’s present wave of youthful crime on bad homes—where there is only one parent, or the father drinks too much, or mother and father quarrel.