Page
THE CHINA MAIL, WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 10, 1960,
Here's a family holiday with a difference-a close look at Leningrad, the city of the Cears
To Russia and back
WHILE my son picked moodily at the black mound on his plate I decided
that the time for discipline had arrived.
11
I had tried saying "It's good for you," and "Lots of children would be glad
of it." In vain.
ཀྭ་ཏྭཱ "
So I rapped the cafe table and ordered: "JONA-
THAN, BE A GOOD BOY.
EAT UP ALL YOUR by
CAVIAR."
These words I then washed down sternly with a glass of pic champagne.
It was no dream. Like any family on the front at Brighton we had trudged toot-weary into the nearest cafe. We carried the usual macs and cameras and postcards saying: "Wish you were here."
But we were not in Brighton, Outside a Pank of Culture and Rest a group of Soviet bandsmen ja tuxedos and bout- Jace bow-Des were assembling for the evening's jazz, session.
Near them boards were laid out for a heelie hour of opes- air chess in which O local muster would take on 12 chal Jengels at once.
Soon sertimenta! Russian
be fox-trotting couples would! around the chess-tables to the during music while the face of Nikita Khrushchev beamed down at them with an Uncle Holly smile from n plucard labelled Peace and
"Missionary of Friendship.
SO COLD
For we were on holiday in Leningrad. As we scribbled at our postcards, the bill arrived for the caviar and champagne and
a big meal besides. It amounted to 15s, a head.
What is it like to be a tourist in Leningrad at a time when the Cold War is getting so very cold again?
is
ROBERT PITMAN
modern: but the seating system
HOL
the was
Throughout mattis violent arguments and Ast-shakings went on all around us over which tickets were for which seats,
In the Interval 3 familiar voice sobbed from between the banners proclaiming the glories of. Soviet sport. Loudspeakers" were relaying a Frankie Laine record.
moo-
Το
Marti
All bustling.
arm-band in- THERE WERE THE LENIN- dicated her official status. GRAD CRONES. While
She screeched; she wept ster jet planes roar above, this a gathering crowd she de- city of Lenin's revolution
still nounced
the desecrator who has much of its work done by dared even to touch the gil: on ages, bent little women in gear one of her beloved status. san! headscarves
whe might when we left the Sunmer have been born about the time Palace 20 minutes later she was Napoleon quit Russia.
still trying to whip up a lynch They sort out the ticket mob to avenge the atrocity. quarrels at the stadium, they But that was Jonathan's only wark the level crossings, they bad moment. Elsewhere among sit staunchly as attendants in the Russians be could do 110 the men's lavatories,
wrong. Perfect strangers bought him ice-cream or pinned badges by the dozen on nis pullover.
One of these small ladies Jonathan will remember for the rest of his life.
We met her when we went out by a slow wide-gauge train to Peter's Summer Palace the Gulf of Finland.
un
This show place was occupied by the Germans for three years. They wrecked it. They smash ed the statues and destroyed The first thing you realise the marvellous fountains. that, whatever is happening in Though workers' tenements in
still shabby and shell-pocked, the Summer Palace wonders have been restored in every de-
PAID OFF
The friendship was extended to us too. We were invariably stared at, especially when Pat, my wife, wore jeans. But the stares were good-natured. And we were bustled to the top of every queue, which then waited
with our phrase books,
the rest of the world, you are the centre of Leningrad are patiently while we struggled still in the city of the Czars the city where a huge cathedral inscription still blandly pro claims in guld "O LORD, THE . MIGHTIER THOU ART, THE GREATER IS THE PLEASURE OF THE CZAR.”
Լ..
DISASTER!
r
How did we reach Leningrad in the first place? We found that the sea-trip on the new Russian liners can cost as little as £30 return. Bun we also found that Leningrad hotels can The Czars' palaces, splendidly Jonathan loved the place. He glided and restored after the loved The Umbrella," a little cost as much as £10 day, it shelling of the Second World round Czarist
garden-sheller you leave booking too late-as we did. So we tried a plan of War, slili gleam across the grey canals. The Czars' deeds and misdeeds arc still recounted with pride.
STARK GESTURE We stopped outside a long low
which lets you enter, then sur-
our own.
Estonia
Stockholm, slop-
rounds you with a curtain of We took the Russian liner water as soon as you touch the seat inside. And Jonathan was not the only one who loved it ping at Copenhagen and Gdynia (Poland). From Stockholm we Gnarled Soviel workers and
booked on a Finnish boat which
from Moscow leaped delighted-
delegations of women teachers bails to ingred and days in ly in and out of The Umbrella's the harbour there for four days. While in harbour passengers are charged £1 a night for bunk and breakfast.
palace. "Given by Catherine the Great to her favourite, Count Potemkin," said Julio, cascade.
the guide we had hired at 5s
ex-
We walked on to the front of an hour for our first morning in the palace itself. Everywhere For the two-and-a-half week Leningrad. "Polerkin lost it gold gleamed and fountains trip from London and back as a wager at cards: so she hissed. Then came the inter- excluding a night cach way in
When national disaster.
Stockholm bought it back for him.
and day-tiḥne her son Paul became Czar he
one finger Jonathan penses in Leningrad-our basic With showed his hatred for her by louched the knee-cap of a bill was £50 a head (£25 for stabling his horses there."
gilded 'Hermes. Waming Jonathan). Julia shock her head in awe whistles
the blew. Through We crossed the River Neva o sightseers a frantic crone came sible. In
et such a stark gesture.
the gaunt brown fortres
and
prison round which Peter the
Great bull his city.
from
"No one ever escaped 11," said Julis. Then she added brightly: "Peter's first prisoner there was his son-whom he alrangled with his own hands." When Julia left us, we went Solemn inside the fortress,
of groups
Russian sightseers, with magnificent cameras slung across bagry, ill-cut suits, were being lectured by guides:
Communist badges glowed from their lapels: We dried
with them. Suddenly there was e hush of respect.
We had entered the fortress's cathedral where the Czars from
Peter onwards are buried. The
bad, the mad., the assassinated, they all lay there in identical
whlie tombs surmounted by huge identical crosses of gold. The roof and reredos. lovingly
maintained by their Commum ist successors, shone with Oriental splendour. But one tomb stood out. It was covered with flowers-some wax, some, to our astonishment, fresh. It was the tomb of Peter himself.
CONTRASTS
Such were the things we jotted down on our postcards. And there were other striking things in this city of contrasts.
We went as cheaply as pos-
the Estonia, third
in class;
boal, the Finnish tourist. But the risk paid off. In the Estonia the third- class cabins verge on luxury Everything is bright-clean. All the day women deck-hands slowly but fondly polish their ship, while male mors scurry around on deck with dust-par and brush. Third-class pas- rust of the egers have the beat, including all bars, where the intellectual bar-tenders took hurt if you leave a tip.
The food? Again, the same for all. Our first startling hunch menu, as we sailed down the Thames Estuary (I give it as printed):---
BUTTER POACHED SOODAK FISH RUMSTEAK WITH BUCKWHEAT GRUEL ORANGES
We got to like it.
MAGIC SEA
What of the Finnish boat? Perhaps it was the best idea
Try a vast and beautiful smorgasbrod meal afloat while tiny whale-backed islands in a
of all. Try it some time.
magic sea glide past the saloon
window.
Then walk on deck, and, with a genial Finnish ship's bar close at hand,, watch the mid- night sun flare along the hori-
zon in a firework display which is both sunset and dawn.
055Y ELZGRETH
After
*NOW WILL YOU ADMIT YOU'RE LOST?"
London Express Service.
digging deep
I find ominous facts
about Africa's brains
THE silent, intent Indian student opposite me in
the train was reading "The Awakening of Africa" and carried a teach-yourself-Russian gramophone record.
The Bing circus from Ghana flew into London in a Soviet jet. Mr Lumumba from the Congo seems ready to turn to Moscow for help withou: a qualm.
Next day you will watch your Fiiish fellow-passengers drink
"Do Just three signs of how far martinks and beer at breakfast
and perhaps you will get distinctive mural in Helsinki. extends in Africa today. There studied
There, exactly
lunch are others.... one After Jonathan's bussle with the Leningrad caviar, I heard my- self saying in utter
serious ness: "Now be a good boy and eat up all your reindeer."
--(London Express Service).
a the pattern of red and black the here...."
Part VI... by Hugh Dundas, D.S.O., D.F.C.
LONDON is a big, big
place. And London- ers have a spirit to match the largeness of their domain. London was not a city to be broken and obliterated, like Warsaw or Rotterdam.
Fortunately, these
THE DAY
When the Nigerian Minister of Finance, Mr C, O. Eboh, visited Prague recently. he used Czech expressions several during a radio interview,
By Anthony Lejeune
Instruction
and
his training in East Germany. America. Russis is recruiting students journey free. He expected 500 Seventeen students this year and up to like mad" he said. Nigerians were being trained as 4,000 soon.
a "Shadow Cabinet." They were There is a school in Budapest not be surprised," said bald £38 a month, took part in where Africans are trained to political discussion be militant trade union leaders "Me Ebch regular
and were taught and anti-colonial agitators. Mr Ebch groups,
that economics, jungle warfare, and responded by declaring
how to manage weapons. "Czechoslovakia is sincere
Lest February, Mr Khrushchev promoter of African indepen- dence and its economic help is announced the foundation of a
"People's Friendship Univer many. entirely unselfish."
sity in Moscow for students from Africa, Asia, and Latin
8
In 1958, another Nigerian, Mr An Ajao of Lagos, described
SCRAMBLE!
The story of the greatest battle of the War.
WHEN THE BATTLE TURNED
facts were not app
apparent IN OUR FAVOUR.......
to Adolf Hitler in the beginning of September, 1940.
assault on London imposed on it dignified any respite the Luftwaffe, to the benefit of Fighter Command. the RAF.
for
Impatient to press on with the England, now invasion of
Quite the reverse; it was a scheduled to start on September
In the first place, Hitler's day of fearful strain; a day of 21, persuaded by misleading Luftwaffe intelligence reports decision to attack heavily by forment and anguish for Dowd into believing that Fighter Com- night as well as by day over- ing, who saw the massett forma- mand was finished, infuriated stretched the resources of the tions of the enemy reaching and· by the penetration of RAF bom- Luftwaffe bomber fleett
piercing the heart of the nation, bere into the sacred Fatherland,
A | he decided to flay the British
day when - Air Vice capital by day and by, night.
Marshal Keith Park, mander of 11 Group left his DECISIVE
operations room and took to the air himself in a Spiffire to join in the battle; a day when
Secondly, the day bombers had further to go before reach- ing their targets, and his gave our squadrons more time to as semble and position themselves for attack. It also added greatly
THERE WAS ALEXANDER, It was not a happy decision to the difficulties of the hard the youth who sided up to us for
the
Londoner,
cam
The Communist-front World Federation of Trade Unions rung a "High School of Interna tional Solidarity" in East Ger-
300 African There are some
near tn Warsaw! students Prague coloured studenta under- go a year's language course enlivened by "factual tuftion" about "the development of Socialism
an
In Prague itself, the Inter- national Union of Students runs Economic "Institute of Studles" which is believed to be the principal Soviet bloc school training underground
for
activities.
SIGNIFICANT
Only the Kremlin knows how many Red Linged graduates are being sent back to Africa each year. But here are some sample. figuress→→
Group as a second wave of The crisis past, 'Fighter Com- Now studying in Rusia ire enemy airplanes showed up on mand regained its strength day believed to be 40 students from the board,
by day. When Goering, sulkily Guinoa, 10-15 trom Somalia, 45. unwilling to accept defeat, from the Sudan, and five from Attackers and defenders first despatched his unfortunate Algeria, come together in a violent explo legions back to the attack on In Prague there are 150-200 To the north of London, Leigh. sion of whirling planes over the September 18, 27 and 30 they African students, including 12
south, coast of Kent. Mallory, commanding 12 Group, tonilmed over a broad, high
The fight got three more good drubbings. Nigerians, 30 from French West Africa, 30 from the Sudan. 18- has assembled at Duxford, eight
front. miles south of Cambridge, a
Fri for flying again, I return-20 from Guinea, six from East five fiorn Ethiopia, Park committed squadron after ed on September 13 to my old Africa. wing of five squadrons under
four Douglas Bader. This formidable squadron to battle, finally un- squadron, which was re-forthing three from Senegal, and force joined in the battle for leashed Bader's five squadrons in Lincolnshire. It was just. 23 from Togoland.
In East Germany there are at London,
from 12 Group, which had been days since, we had gone south to On September 8 and 9 the waiting impatiently over north Kenley, a close-knit group of least 28 Sudanese, 20 Guineas, Germans were prevented from east London,
friends who had down together two Ghanaians, six Algeriazas, repeating their success of the They descended now into the since the summer before the and 17 Nigerians.
The totals may not be very previous day. Their formations macistrom with deadly effect, war. were broken up before reaching the strongest concrnuation of
high yet, but they are signia-
you realise London, and retreated with British fighters ever to fly as n Now only three or four fami- cet enough when heavy losses.
unit, and completed the breast. Har Laces greeted me in the that the Congo, an 'area elmont pilots hut. I felt utterly sad as large ar Europe. was 16+ up of, the German attack, NONE LEFT ·
ducing fewer than 300 educated 11 parti- pressed and over-worked Mes- the whole strength of
Churchill turned to Park: and désolate.
Africans a year, and in tile at an open-air cafe on the cularly for the East-Enders who serchmitt pilots
Group, supported by strong On September & bad weather "How mohy- fighters have you
But there was little me for whole of Kenya there are barely Nevsky Prospect.
had not found that England was The Me 109s were short reinforcements from 12 Group, held up the attack and gave the left?" he asked.
despondency, as Out of the
the squadron 600 graduates or their equiva corner of his
a particularly fit place for mange machines.
their failed to prevent Now
the enemy fighter forces a breather. There
“Nobe, Sir," said Paris
prepared at top speed to resume lent. mouth he informed us in Eng-heroes to live in between the pilots, under strict orders to bombers from getting through was a resumption of activity on And that was it. That, in the
A few Some 3,000 Africans are at lish that he would give good wars, but who now showed a sdick closely to the bomber to Woolwich and Thameshaven September 10, but then again for last throw, was the margin its part in the battle. money for nylon shirts, for heroisto far beyond the ordinary, formations, had to dy slowly and the West Ham docks, three days the weather was bad
In the skies over Kent, British days later we were down south British universities, but ther Duke Ellington records, for For Dowding and his pilots, and carefully, conserving furi
gloriously, beautifully bad for
Irained here for political work. English pounds. (Hle rate was however, Hitler's intervention to the very limit of their range.
A day when the Germans lost the fighter pilots who had their und German pilots cloned that again, sving in Douglas Baders are not selected politically nor morning in the Anal and absolute 45 roubles to the pound, against was decisive. It iloped the scales Their freedom of manoeuvre 40 airplanes, but Fighter Com- first real rest for nearly a
test of strength and spirit. the official tourist rate of 28.) their way at the moment when was dus severely restrictex), dost nearly as many month, de
We soon came to recognise the shortage of replacement
28. Splifires and Hurricanes, the On September 18 Winston other Alexanders: If we saw a pilots and the exhaustion of
equivalent of two Zull', Churchill went down to 11 young man dressed in Western those who survived might,. In a
equadrons, chut down in air Group Operations Romh. As he
The Germana come back that style we know he was either a few more days, have brought
It was about this time that combat.:
sat end, weiched the plots
ofternoon, but the events of the diplomat or someone who Fighter Command to its knees, Goering, haranguing his lighter Yet, it was the turning post, started building up on the table morning had blunted their spirit. wanted to buy drip-dry shirts. By switching the emphasis of leaders and accusing them of
below him. They were mostly students attack, Hitler broke the tempo mailing in their
The mercurial Keith Park, To Park it was soon evident Gathering clouds could ther part of the who was given great freedom by that a raid of extraordinary in their approch
d its but there were lesser splys too. of the Luftwaffe's une battle, asked caustically what Dowding to conduct the battle strength, was building up. The fighters met them with undim dressed by some mysterious efforts to break the back of they needed to do the job pro- in his res, quickly saw and plots stayed over the French ched fury telepathy in the black shirts Fighter Command,
perly.
appreciated the changed pat- That was
Two days later Hitler called a and natly suits of Hammersmith
factor in the
constantly toreasing, CSANT Adolf Galland, as tarless in tern of attack.
they shied until the
fet the Ger- contesence of his inaalon chiefs course of evente which went Broadway.
B# On September 8 he sent off * THERE WAS THE INDOOR unnoticed at the time and which facing his political leaders
Thundredaj: Ve
to tdmet that the BAT," so far STADIUM. Tickets for the cannot be precisely defined; but he won ki a fight, replied with his fighters proged together in man airplanes were assembling Goering, utterly despondent, hed Formations of two or three By the time they moved north from bang defeated, actually ballet were sold out so we went I am convinced that it was in one word: "Spitfires."
The Arst enajor assault on squadrons splece, the Baitures towards the count of Kent, Pack shkveld, pigns of inherenteling well- to see Leningrad (v.- Oxford.portant, In Germany's fathure to
Matte London tookt place on to engage the German sitter had several somadona airborne, vity. The invasion was called (molimBlay 21 all-American break through. feam) at basket-ball
Ware obvitaly apparent were September 7. Its escorts, the Hurricanes to cal author in carne Dustard of identity. The conlike ot The diedban: was wonderfully, the willig uitenkin which the from apparent on that day that with the bombies.
instead.
FIRST ASSAULT
CLOSE KNIT
12 Group Wing.
3.
And when, in those last days LAVISH of September, we clashed again with the Messerschmitts over The Rudan have a t Kent, we did so as part of abject: to capture African, thin single formation 60 airplanes in pursuit of the they strong
lavish with mones, effort, It was indeed a remarkable Advice such as that gives y transformation from the state of Professor Ivan Potekhin, chair- affairs we had known so short a time before, when it had beenFriendship for the Peoples
man of the Soviet Association of unusual to get even 10 or 12 Africa airplanes into the air together. SATURDAY:
Amateur dirmen
London Toprase Heroios),
"It is a harmful flujon.” Hold his eager literised the Fothersday,
[principle's the Against.colon
H