EUROPEAN IMPRESSIONS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22778, 14 January 1936, Page 11

EUROPEAN IMPRESSIONS

A TRAVELLER’S EXPERIENCES WIDESPREAD USE OF ENGLISH A visitor to Wellington at the present time is Mr Hector M'Kay, formerly of the firm of Messrs Crichton and M'Kay, architects, of Wellington, whose home for some years past now has been in London. Mr M'Kay is, however (says the Dominion), a great traveller, and rarely a year passes but he pays a visit to some foreign country or takes a world tour. Last year Mr M'Kay visited Russia, Latvia. Esthonia. Poland and Finland. The trade of the Baltic was colossal, he said, for it not only took in the countries mentioned, but Eastern Germany, Denmark and Sweden, all countries which had something in the way of produce to export to London. Latvia, he thought, was a little country that was making steady progress. Its people were for the most part hard-working farmer folk, and they had made good progress nationally and as producers since they were given' their independence. NEW ORDER IN RUSSIA. Russia was evolving a new social order, from which personal greed was eliminated. All the people had to work, and they apparently worked with good will at the task allotted to them. At the hotel where he stayed the appointments were first class, the meals good, and bathroom attendance as good as anywhere.

When asked how he managed with the language problem, Mr M'Kay said that English was spoken pretty well everywhere on the Continent. Most of the Continental people, at least those in the larger cities, spoke two or three languages, and English was usually one of them. Even in the hotel in Moscow the housemaid on his flat spoke quite good English. When he asked her where she learned the language she said that she had studied under_ an English professor at the University. Then there was another woman in charge of the keys to the rooms who could speak intelligible English. He questioned her as to where she had picked up English. She indicated a little fat book by her side. It was a Russian-English dictionary. When not engaged she studied it. So one could see these people were not only intelligent, but purposeful and out to improve their education. Mr M'Kay said he could not speak of the great problems of the country, or whether or not the Five-year Plan, now extended to 10 years, was going to bring about the millennium, but Russia was now quite an attractive place to visit. The way was made very easy and pleasant for visitors, and every encouragement was being given to swell the tourist traffic. There was no flaunting of wealth. The people in the mass were poor, but extreme want and misery had been eliminated as far as his observation went. POVERTY IN AUSTRIA.

Probably the poorest country _ in Europe was Austria. Mr M‘Kay visited Vienna just after the assassination of Dr Dolifuss, a very disturbed time in the history of that State. It was a period of suspense and suspicion, and most people went about armed in case of personal attack in the streets. There was no doubt about the poverty of the great majority'of the people. That was obvious. In Vienna the natural thing to do was to go to the opera, but, much to his surprise on reaching the opera house, they found the place quite full and the charges even higher than they were at Covent Garden.