VISIT TO MOSCOW

Evening Post, Volume CXXIII, Issue 118, 20 May 1937, Page 23

VISIT TO MOSCOW

VALUABLE TALKS

HON. W. NASH SEES ROUND

(From "The Post's" Representative), LONDON, May 1.

Foreign affairs and the Soviet peace policy were discussed by Mr. W. Nash (Minister of Finance and Marketing) with M. Litvinov (Russian Minister of Foreign Affairs) during his , stay in Moscow. There were also trade talks with M. Eosenholz (Minister of Foreign Trade) and conversations with M. Grinko (Minister of Finance) relating to internal finance, budgetary, industrial, and commercial, and foreign exchange transactions. The information gained by Mr. Nash was both interesting and useful, and his visit to Russia's capital was made particularly enjoyable by the facilities extended to him. Unaccompanied, Mr. Nash spent an hour in the city's poorer districts from the point of view of housing. His comment was that, although there was evidence of congestion and poor conditions, it seemed certain that the position would be very considerably im-.| proved within the next two or three years. The Soviet authorities, he said, had dealt with a population' which had doubled in ten years. Today it was now nearing the five million mark, and it was intended to keep it at that figure by moving industiies to the country and forming industrial centres elsewhere. Another interesting occasion was a visit to the new Moscow underground railway. Its stations are said to be the most luxurious in the world. Several are faced with marble, and marble columns support the roof. Advertisements ar,e banned, and all train accommodation is uniform. There is no differentiation of class. The Minister was. interested to hear that the factory workers of Moscow were so enthusiastic about the construction of the underground that they worked on their free day, entirely voluntarily, and .without pay. IMPRESSIVE WORKS. Mr. NasK was also given the opportunity of inspecting several buildings. These included a former riding school, now a garage; a nobleman's house, now a great library; and a new apartment building which houses 1500 workers. He was shown the Moscow river banks being faced with stone, and was told that as a result of the completion of the Moscow-Volga canal, which will bring vessels from the Mediterranean to Moscow, the height of the water in the river will be raised several feet, necessitating, the- building of eleven new bridges and foundations of several have already been laid. , A call was naturally made upon the British Embassy, whose representatives welcomed the Minister and his staff on arrival at the city, and opportunity was taken of seeing a performance ot "Lyobov Yarovaya" at the Moscow Art Theatre.. This Mr. Nash declared to be "an amazing dramatic performance— magnificent in conception and execution." . ■ :

Tin Kaganovich ball-bearing factory was seen. Prior to 1932 Soviet Russia imported her total requirements, of ball and roller bearings. Today this factory employs 25,000 workers, with 15,000 in training at nearby technical schools, and another new factory has 'been planned. Russia now supplies all her needs for 'ball and roller bearings and1 has a large export trade, which includes Turkey and Japan.