SIMPLE RUSSIANS

Evening Star, Issue 25676, 27 December 1945, Page 3

SIMPLE RUSSIANS

I don’t know whether there is a shortage of wrist watches in Russia, bjit there won’t be for long, judging from what 1 hear of the movement of those commodities eastwards from Austria (writes “ Janus,’’ in the * Spectator ’), Russian soldiers there apparently have a passion for them, and the method of acquiring them does not bear too close investigation. A Russian wearing half a dozen watches on his forearm is said to be a common sight. An instructive bicycle story was told me as true. A Soviet warrior who had “ secured ” a machine in relatively good condition, and was manoeuvring it a little uncertainly, saw an ill-clad boy on a rattling old crock riding insouciantly with his arms folded. The Russian, concluding that this achievement was to be credited to the machine, not the rider, insisted on an exchange. The boy, acquiescing with alacrity, streaked off on the superior machine, while the Russian, prone beside a prone velocipede, watched his disappearing and triumphant coat tails.