FAMILY REUNITED

Evening Star, Issue 21621, 17 January 1934, Page 2

FAMILY REUNITED

RUSSIAN REVOLUTION SEQUEL THE CASE OF GALINA BOGATIROFF IPeb United Press Association.] WELLINGTON, January 16. With the arrival of a little browueVed Russian girl at Wellington by the Wanganella to-night the curtain was rung down on a drama of real life dating back to the fateful days of tlie Russian Revolution. The little girl, Galina Bogatirolf, had travelled from the Siberian town of Barnau to Now Zealand to meet her parents, whom she had not seen since her babyhood. She was traced after a search extending over four years to a remote part of Russia, through the agency of the Red Cross- Society.

Galina is 11J years of age, and since her parents lost trace of her some 11 years ago she has lived in various parts of Siberia. She travelled 4,000 miles through Siberia to Vladivostock en route to Japan, and travelled from Japan- to Sydney by the Atsuta Maru. She is a sturdy little girl, typically Russia)i in appearance, and according to those who travelled in the Wanganella with her it takes little to cause her to show her'snow-white teeth in - a broad and happy smile. “ I was only a year old when I was separated from my parents,” she said through an interpreter, “ but my auntie has told me of those terrible days. To save their lives my mother and father had to escape. I was then only a baby. They were, 1 am told, faced with a terrible journey of about 400 miles through snow. They suffered hardships and 1 fell ill. They would have died if they had stayed with me, and 1, too, would have died, so they left me to the: care of friendly people' and again pushed on over the snow, escaping to Ne\v. Zealand.” When the Wanganella berthed late to-night the largest crowd that has ever greeted an intercolonial vessel gathered on the wharf. Hundreds of people in all grades of society evinced the keenest desire to obtain a glimpse of the little Russian girl whose romantic story, widely published in the Press, has aroused the keenest interest in and sympathy for her. The reunion of Galina with her parents, which took place in the large music room of the Wanganella, Mas extremely affecting. Parents and child at. first conversed together in Russian, but later those who had accompanied the parents on board seized an opportunity to shower warm kisses upon her in a welcome to her new homeland. Galina’s first reaction to seeing her parents for the first time in her memory was to cry softly. Then in Russian she asked them a question indicative of the bewilderment she must have been feeling during the last few years: “ Do you know any people in Siberia to prove that yon are my parents?'' But this feeling of doubt, if it really existed at all, was soon dissolved in smiles of joy. . 'the child has a really fascinating smile, and when she was not showing shyness at the presence of a large number of persons who were genuinely delighted to see her and also when she was not blinking at photographers' flashlights, this smile was often to bo seen.