THE RED ARMY

Dominion, Volume 21, Issue 188, 11 May 1928, Page 9

THE RED ARMY

GREAT EFFORT TO IMPRESS AMANULLAH QUEER PRESENTS TO AFGHAN QUEEN REMARKABLE PARTY (United Press Association.—By Electric Telegraph.—Copyright.) (Rec. May 10, 11 p.m.) Moscow, May 9.

At a strictly private show, the Red Army is doing its utmost with flamethrowers, low flying aeroplanes, tanks, and machine guns, to make a final and grandiose impression on King Amanullah before he starts for Leningrad. There the King will be shown the grim island fortress of Kronstadt, the Baltic fleet amid smoke screens in a sham fight with torpedo craft. The queerest mixture of presents has been lavished on the Royalties. Queen Souriya has accepted a gigantic table service of the Tsar Nicholas china, also a rifle, possibly a memento of Moscow’s workgirl battalions, armed for the coming fight with Western Europe, and a lacquered box of sixty dolls, dressed to represent every one of the Soviet’s motley races. Overnight, the Grand Hotel, Moscow’s dreary, dusty, and second-rate Soviet caravanserai, is transformed into the Afghans’ conception of a Mahomet’s paradise. Secrecy surrounds a party which King Amanullah and Queen Souriya gave M. Tchicherin, M. Karakhan, and other high officials, and the Commissariats of Foreign Affairs and Trade. The master of ceremonies has given the “Dailv News” details which will make the local proletariats’ eyes drop out. The food alone cost 600 guineas, and it took seventy guests six hours to eat it. It was the maddest mixture of Russian-Afghan-Persian dishes. Flowers and wines were specially imported. .