COMMUNISTS ABROAD

Evening Post, Volume CVIII, Issue 119, 15 November 1929, Page 3

COMMUNISTS ABROAD

QUESTIOjNt OF DRESS

SIMPLICITY ADVISED

To be well dressed is the aiubitioa of fashionable circles in most countries. Not to be too well dressed is the injunction which Emilian Jaroslavsky, secretary of the Communist Party Control Committee, has recently laid' oil Communists who work in the Soviet diplomatic and commercial institutions abroad (states the Moscow correspondent of the "Christian Science Monitor"). . ■■'.''

11. Jaroslavsky emphasises the point that the workers in other countries are inclined to' judge the Soviet Republic by the conduct of the Soviet citizens who go abroad, especially when these citizens are Communists. For this reason any tendency toward luxury and superfluous display in such matters aa dress and entertainment must be severely condemned. * ' ' -"■:--.

NOT FULL EQUALITY.

While full equality does, not prevail even among Communist Party: members' m Russia, and the "responsible worker" who holds a high, party or Soviet post generally lives in more comfortable conditions than the factory hands who make- up the rank and fill frill?* % the contliti°ns and standards of conduct which have grown up since the revolution discourage anything in the nature of gross and flaunting uxury. Watchful eyes are fastened oil the Communist in high position; if he is guilty of too many derelictions from the ideals of Spartan simplicity he is likely to be summoned before the Control Committee, which will reprimand from the\Trtr reme; '"" The Communists... abroad, on the other hand, have hitherto lived under less strict control. They live, of course m very different surroundings, and the argument "When in Rome' do as "the Romans do, "has often been raised to justify rather non-proletarian -practices on the part of Soviet diplomats' arid commercial representatives. Now.how+w'*t f^ Ung has evJdently grown .up that the time has come to call ia-halt, and M. Jaroslavsky's article, whieh>ia printed m the ,Communisf Party's.offi?1 al organ, "Pravda,'.' serves: awatning that Soviet citizens, abroad will be held accountable-for undue expenditure on dress and entertainment. „....:,. RUSSIAN DRESS UNSUITABLE. Recognising that the national Russian shirt, worn without a tie, would not be a suitable costume for Berlin or i-aris or London, and advising Communists to be neat and careful in their dress, M. Jaroslavsky points; to the very substantial harm-which = was done to Soviet prestige abroad by the behaviour of the wife of a Soviet' official, who 7ZI su°\ e*Pensi™ an<*-elaborate costumes -that her picture was printed in many illustrated newspapers and magazines. Although the lady, in questtou was not a party member, the 'German. Democrats made the most of her. display as a. basis f or attacks on the'prevalent standards of conduct among P t h e so^r + wer eratS ' aDd the matter went so far that German Communist workers CW. • f S- °f ***** and P"test 4o "Tot 01?* F***»h- obsSfe: Sometimes- in America, let us say where simplicity in dress predominates even among representatives of the capitalist world, our comrades struggle into some.sort of,dress suit which sui s them as well as a saddle- does; a cow e-rfttv^^^"^ In conclusion H. Jaroslavsky urees beTtTf>l S Wh° g° abroad to reS ber that they are on the advance posts 2L mJ"—* S- tat6 ' Where ™? -<W step may injure its interests.