UTOPIA

Evening Star, Issue 23451, 16 December 1939, Page 3

UTOPIA

Moscow is still one of tho most interesting cities in the world. It s foil of strangeness, of unexpected contrasts, of vitality. It’s changed a good deal since my last visit four years ago. There’s a big new coffee house, opposite Lenin’s tomb. People dress_ better —a little better—and there’s been a good deal of public building. The streets are full of automobiles -noisy automobiles. There are more things to buy hut most consumers’ goods _ are still very (Scarce, especially clothing, and prices fantastic. Some highly exciting novelties have appeared m the Soviet shops—egg beaters, for instance, cheese graters, roller skates, bananas. Not so many people stand in line. I saw only three lines. One was for taxis, one for , sausage (at about two dollars per pound), one tor undershirts. As to prices, they are unbelievable. You can sell an old suit of clothes for a thousand roubles, 200 dollars at the official rat© of exchange. An automobile tyre may cost 200 dollars. A good pair of shoes costs a month s average wages.—John Gunther (August 28, 19391, in his new book, ‘The High Lost of Hitler.’