Page 9 Advertisements Column 4

Hawera Star, Volume XLV, 2 January 1926, Page 9

LIFE IN MOSCOW SQUALOR AND SADNESS WHERE EVERYONE IS POOR - . ■ .. ' T\ HE Russians are a lovable race —so simple, so childlike, and so wonderfully dilatory. In Moscow they are not to be seen at their best. The fight to live is too bitter (writes Ann Gray in the London Daily Chronicle). In a city it is always difficult to rise above squalor. In Moscow everyone is squalid. Then there are the strange Asiatic races of the Soviet Republics to be seen in their hundreds, and they do not improve the appearance of the capital. Moscow was always the meeting ground of East and West, and the revolution Iras merely emphasised its Eastern aspect. The streets are dirty and indescribably out of repair, but they are"full and brimming over with life—two million and more people on foot. Tramways there are, of course, and a fleet—though a small one —of brand new Leyland motor omnibuses. A few decrepit taxi-cabs ply for exorbitant fares, and there are some mildewed one-horse Victorias. These, however, are all excrescences —the citizens of Moscow walk. That they should be able to do so is remarkable. The crush hours on London tubes are nothing to the crowds on a Moscow pavement. The problem is complicated by the street traders —the “New Economic Policy” in full swing. It is incredible what can be bought in Moscow from hawkers. They have almost supplanted the shops. The hawker will sell you a caviare sandwich, a bootlace, or a pair of stays. Their booths line both sides of the pavement in never-ending rows. One stumbles over them at the corners and takes refuge iii mid street to avoid solicitations to buy. The crowd .jostles on. It falls into a hole ir the street or stumbles over an upturned bar row. and hurries by. No one smiles. A loot of intense absorption is in every face, and every face looks sad. Then a thing which strikes the feminine eye there are no hats to be seen. A shawl or a handkerchief over the head is all that it is possible, or wise, or even good form to wear The feminine flipperies are of the world that is dead in Russia. The foreigners are very obvious in a city of the poorly clad—not because the foreigner always wears clean linen and what the Rus sians call a “German” suit. I met two English undergraduates in Moscow who, having gone Bolshie in politics, had gone Bolshie in clothes and cleanliness, too. The one unshaven and the other bearded, both were unmistakably British. They did not please the eye. Of another kind, but equally alien and infinitely preferable, were the six young. Englishmen of the artisan class, staying in our hotel and being suitably imbued with Communistic theory. They always came to meals both washed and shaved. "We saw few foreign women, but the ones we saw seemed strangely exotic in such surroundings. There was the English bride, who told us of having gone out in a trousseau frock and hat. She was chased through the streets by a hostile mob, and now goes out only in her oldest clothes. Yes, the foreigners are obvious in Moscow.

THE PRINCE’S FUTURE STUDENT OF BRITISH TRADE •A/JR. G. WARD PRICE, who travelled . A with the Prince of Wales as a special correspondent during the recent tour of South America, contributes to the Sunday Pictorial a forecast as to the future work of the Royal ‘‘Ambassador.” It will be read with wide 111tv rest, for Air Ward Price, with a broad outlook, has some vital things to say. “There is no doubt that the Prince will take up his new work with the keenness which is his strongestquality. This does not mean that he wifi embark on a course of reading in economics. His method is. the swifter and perhaps surer one of talking with men who know, and going to see for himself. Seven months of travelling with the Prince of Wales under circumstances of considerable variety are enough to give one many opportunities of observing his real character. On me this experience has left the impression that the public at 'urge is too much ; engrossed with the' Prince’s ‘charm’ and ‘sportsmanship.’ •'ll does not sufficiently realise that to these qualities of youth which first captured their affection, the Prince has n.jw added a wide knowledge of countries and men and things, a practised power of observation which misses very little that goes on around him, a remarkably unfailing memory, a great, deaf, more self-confidence than he is usually credited with, and a strong will of his own “There are two questions that he has asked again and again of the bestinformed Britons with whom he lias come in contact throughout this tour. They are: ‘What are the possibiliti in South America of emigration from Great Britain ?’ and ‘What can be done to develop the sale of British products?’ . . . “He found time quite frequently after dinner to sit with British mer chants and others established there. talking over the question of mark for British exports. Sometimes, w] any particular piece of' mformat especially struck his attention, would ask for a note 'of it to lie S' to him in writing next day. “These are matters over which has thought and talked a good deal his homeward voyage, and into a < mission of such subjects he thr< himself with the same eagerness ti he puts into his daily game of squa It will not be surprising if the rest of what the Prince has learnt dur his tour and of his own reflections it reach the nation in the form of energetic speech .at some early opp tunit.y. "To that speech all classes of roam try will do we'l to give attenti for it will be the deliberate opinion a man who has had greater opportu ties of learning lhs subject than r other individual in the kingdom. A it will be as' sincere as it is straig forward. ‘‘lf our producing c'asses, from 1 highest to the lowest, would comb in the same spirit as will inspire i Prince of Wales in addressing the i tion. then his return from this ]i of his great tours might be the beg ning of a British Renaissance wk would soon dispel the diseases of n and body from which the country present suffers.”

Murder of the Tsar j | AM told that during his stay at the - 1 Grand Hotol at Scarborough as a fraternal delegate of the All-Kussian Council of Trade Unions to the Trades Union Congress, Mr. Y. Y. Yarocsky gave a description of the murder by the Bolsheviks of the Tsar, Tsaritsa, and their family, which is probably tlio true version of tlie crime (writes the Labour correspondent of the Daily Telegraph). According to Mr. Yarocsky, the Kussiau Imperial Family were imprisoned under the control of the Red Army, and had oeen removed fro >1 place to ‘place as a safeguard against possible escape or capture oy the Whit' army. The Bolshevik' leaders were in dailv fear of this, as they knew that if the ‘Tsar and his family became linked with the White army, it -would be enormously strengthened both morally and materially. Then came the critical moment when the White army appeared to have located the place of confinement of the Imperial Family, and an encircling movement was in progress. The Bolshevik leaders therefore determined to act, and the murder of the Tsar and his family was their solution. The victims, whose method of slaughter had already been arranged, were informed that they were to go to yet another place of confinement, but that on t Ids occasion they were to leave the room in which the. Tsar, Tsaritsa, and their children were ali gathered singly when directed by the soldiers who were their gaolers. Yu rocsky stated that the Tsaritsa was the only member of the Imperial ‘Family who had a premonition of the fate which was awaiting them: She went into hysterics, and the Tsar did all lie could to soothe her. but in vain. The Tsar was the first to leave the room to take the patli as directed, the others following as the order was given. As each one passed a given point a shot was fired from behind, striking the victim’s head in close proximity to the ear. This cold-blooded murder of the Tsar and his family was justified fcy Y r arocsky as tne removal of tiiose who living would have imperilled the existence of the Bolshevik Government.