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Dominion, Volume 29, Issue 113, 6 February 1936, Page 4

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Life In Manchuria Au incident in what she termed the “great Russian drama” was revealed recently to the “Sydney Morning Herald” by Miss Olga Meyer, when she described the emigratloii of Russians from Siberia to Manchuria during the first years of Soviet rule in Russia. Miss Meyer, who was born iu Siberia of Russian and Polish parentage, has spent all her childhood and girlhood in Mukden, Manchuria, and there learned to be a true Russian of the old order.

Miss Meyer arrived in Sydney with her father, and her mother and brother, who both speak very little English. “Things were not so bad for us when we first went to Mukden, as my father was a Polish subject,” she said, “but the Russian emigrants suffered very much through poverty. Mukden was very small then, and there was no neeomnioclatiou other than in the Japanese concession, where the walls of the buildings were all falling into disrepair. We all had a very hard time, but the Chinese Government was very kind to us.”

Miss Meyer described the progress of Mukden, which now, though small, is a brisk business centre, where there are British, Chinese, Japanese and Russian communities. The Russians cling to their old Ideals, and holie that some day their own country may again be it pitied where they can live. “At present that is impossible,’* said AlisS Meyer with a wistful smile. "We have been brought up very dilTefeiitly in Mukdem When I was passing through Moscow last yeai‘ It seemed So strange for me : as a Russian to see what was mine and yet not mine. We who.have been brought up to what Soviet Russians would consider luxuries could not now live their life. The women were all dressed alike, and I didn’t think they looked hoppy. They may have been happy, not having known a better life. Though Mukden was small and the Russians there suffered hardships, theit children had the advantage of a. splendid education, for among the immigrants were highly-educated people, including foi’mel’ university professors, who now teach in the schools, i: consequence, though their school equipment was very limited, their standard of learning and culture was high. They obtained text-books from Germany and Latvia, and among them have a comprehensive collection of books which they would not have had access to If they lived iu Russia. The cultural life existed among the people of the Russian community—there was no cultural life in Mukden—apart from this—but among themselves they enjoyed good mus(c and organised dramatic entertainments. Occasionally travelling shows Visited them. The life was far from ideal, for they Were restricted in many ways, and could not motor iu the surrounding country for fear of bandits. ‘The life there is not interesting, but if you have friends you can live anywhere,” Miss Meyer- said philosophically. z Miss Meyer speaks more fluent English than the rest of the family, as she has spent a year in Edinburgh (studying English and stenography. Mr. Meyer has been in business in Mukden, but -he has now retired, and intends to settle in New Zealand. Among the family's luggage were a ’cello and balalika, the -Russiun national instrument, which Miss Meyer’s brother, Victor, plays.