1952-05-10 — Page 11

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UT witat

Was Moscow like?" people ask me, and I never know where to begin,

And

whether it I wonder might not be a good idea to tell you what London looked like o

weeke

THE CHINA MAIL, SATURDAY, MAY 10, -1982;

CYRIL RAY; well-known London news- man, spent nearly 18 months in Moscow as the only full-time British correspondent thore. He has now returned home, and is able to give, in this exclusiva serios, an un- consored report on life in the Soviet Union. This revealing series starts today. But Moscow's streets had than men deelers and painting been clear, as they almost and plastering seem to be cX+" always are. Superbly Melen! clusively female occupatlans. in come things, infuriatingly in- competent in others, what the Ruralphs have got fleked is the problem of snow clearance, in the big cities.

ΕΠΟΙ

Motor-drawn

ploughs and snow-shovellers swing into action at the first snowfall.

Fleets of lorries go off in con- voy to dump the heaped snow into the Moskwa River, or the helda outside the town.

Metropolitan mountaineers pre the overhang clearing

from

They get the rate for the job, but they do the job for the rate

and nobody who had ADA E lorryload of heavy furniture treing unloaded by women will ever doubt that in the Soviet Union a woman is held to be capable of the heaviest work- os, In fairness, she is held. to be suitable for the most honour- able And highly-pald piro- tcssions.

"Ab," I hear someone say, "n some jobs in the Soviet Union roofs, and window-ledges, and highly-paid than others! What

WOMEN

ON

ago, on the spring after- noon when I arrived home after

18 months in the Soviet Union,

and try to give you a picture of Moscow by contrest.

Let me admit

that the first

thing that struck me was how

pretty

and how brightly dressi

girls were.

And nearly as alluring

London's girls were London's I could barrity shop-windows..

1473

drag myself away evon displays of Ironmongery.

Thut how untidy with litter the

are: pavements

how sparsely alled and unhygienic the food stores: how much emphasis on sex and the allurements of sex

cinema posters, shup- windows and newspapers!

•

MUST

A view of the Kremlin, with its onios-topped ininarets, taken from across

the river.

WORK

THE HEAVY JOBS

Women do heavy manual work, and work alongside men for equal pay,

And if those first home-coming impressions of mine give you the- idea that inund Moscow's girls' pain and dowdy; that the shop- windows are drab; that the streets are tidler; the food nuze

and handled plentiful

more hygienically; and that Moscow is a far, far more puritanical place mosi than London well, that's a pretty accurate background to the picture I'm trying to paint for you.

Mind you, it so happened that London had an unfair advantage

and

Clean streets

all was

every

characteristic of wil-in about the classless Communist

Important sireet and society?? roadway of Moscow sturdy The Russian answer to that is women, young and old, in head- that the Soviet Union is not yet shawis, quilted coats, high felt Communist state, but only boots and aprons .iI never progressing jowards Communium understood

and thus meanwhile wide differences of pay are a neces- eary simulus.

streets

The aprons) arc chopping with metal hoes at the ley underlay left by the snow- I had left Moscow, as I had shovellers, and sweeping it into

But the large sums of money first seen it, in the hard, while the gutters,

you would earn if you were k the Russian winter.

summer these same successful hands

(and In the of

an orthodox London, basking in its women will be sweeping the Marxist) author, a ballerina, an

the dusty

and tidying the electrical engineer, o: a highly be efficient casiminer cannot. and brighter by contrast, parks and gardens.

by

stralied Once you have the

the invested in private enterpris season

streets et Moscow you much

will to give you control of or a proit. realise that the equality of the from other people's labour, and

accent affect the sexes in the Soviet Union-for cannot Moscow to Helsinki,

title good and for bad-is Д

very clothes or manners or thousand miles endless snow real thing.

your children.

April

sunshine

ERYCHL

season

slays

comparison

same.

came

the

home by train from

across

or of

lay

the

men

(They can now make it a te, but not much, easier to give them a university educa- tion.)

-snow that stretched for many There are wemen bur-drivers

taxi-drivers; wonen thousands of mlics more, from and

Archangel to the Cauenaus and bricks along with from the Battic to Vladivostok. there are more women doctors

fore the doors open at 11 in the morning. Jar Moscow's shopping hours are from 11 In the morning to eight at night. Food shops are open from 11 to 11.

Not

Not that luxuries Are yet avalirèle in quantities sufficient to meet the enormous public demand.

Soviet-made television sa *ard motor-cans, zilit nightles und pressure-ocoliers, refrigerá- tors and washing machines, aro oti avellable to the Moscont for the influenza among a definite'y ret done to arosa your people more used to a bitterly krets when you sit down-the shopper, but usually in small cold.

would but invigoratingly dry audience

out do and at intervals. come

S4 the stores are nlways winter.

excited enough to make jungle

for there crowded,

is more noires and awing from lamp- The

"Tarzan" Tage for

money about than goods, and rather significant. All new ports, Soviet-made flims (Uke novels, The black-heeled nylons are prices have been cut every year

since 1040. operas, ballets, plays, and even symptomatle, loa. One of the most the potter of circus clowns) devious and understandable must point an ideological moral, afins of the Soviet regime's to They must show the Western-inercase-the-pclf-respect of ita would (and especially the United people to aboth the Russian

of inferiority. States) as ruled by bloodthirsty feeling beasis, or hold up to the Soviet Weg: that has obtained since memory in their minds of the cit zen the pattern of what "the long before the days of Peter prewar famines, gráb what! new Soviet man" should be, the Great,

Decorum

That has been so up till now, But during the at any rate, past few months there have been indications, in the state-. controlled Press, that

the rogine, in this respect, is in- clined to relax a litle.

10

the

They grab

-And-Moscow's husbands -and- housewives, still with the

years of wartime shortages und

they can whenever they can,

This is why the Ministry of whether they have immediate

Light Industries stages regular need for it or not.

And though Russians on the fashion shows in an attempt

work it is, too-to whole are uncommonly honest and hard make Moscow's weinen fathlon- in what they do if not in what conscious.

they say. (I learned never to to believe what I was told, even Sa along with the drive increase the number and rango if it were only the date for the of consumer goods-and the return of my laundrybut I Increase was one of the most could leave my car unlocked In As a sop to an entertainment- hungry publie, American films noticeable features of my 18 any street in Moscow), « mild has inevitably looted in the capture of Berlin months in Moscow-is an effort black-market

their quality and

grown up › in consequence. are put on Russian screens from to improve

Women too old for 'work will time to time (and the Ameri- finth and appearame, can Embassy, aska in vain for Soviet-made nylons (kap stand in every queue they can make an extra 100 the rent due to the American rons" they are called) Alm companies whoso legal been long available, but now roubles er so on reselling the property they are).

chat they are to be had with television set that the factory When I left Moscow Johnny the stylish black heels there is worker hasn't time to hunt for. Weismulier in a couple of pre- a new rush on them, with long

(Moro on Monday) ar "Tarzan" Alms dubbed in- queues at the elty's stores be-

have find, and

Here's Health and Comfort

fedders

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Beor - a product of the

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ON BRIA

Great attention is paid to hygiene, and in this modern store in Gorki Street food exhibited for sale is kept under glass covers.

Give me

Incomes differ

There are wide differences in income in the Soviet Union, and a Red Army general is more respected then a private because

of his greater responsibility,

But there.ure no inherited class

distinctions yel, at any cate.

And though: gcneral may be able

to afford to dine at Mos- Cow's smart Ararat restaurant

and D night

factory every worker once a month, you can dino there yourself any night and see both generals and mill- hands-eating the

sume food

and getting the same service. to German and with Russian There was a saying among subtitles, was the rage of Mos- the Russians

weeks cow... Iow D

If it were not for the ex- ago that Moscow was in the grip of three epidemies the tremely decorous standard of Au, "Tarzan," and bluck-heeled public behaviour that is now nylona.

the thing in Moscow-it is Some unusually mild, damp most 1-mannered to whistle winter weather was responsible or to hum in public, and it is

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for choice!

By appalotment

to the late

King George VI

Here is a recipe from the Booth's Cocktail Booklet which is obtainable from your suppller;

SILVER STREAK

Booth's Gin

4. Kummel

Mix In Staker

A typical Moscow window display. i

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This le Because Dooch's Blendle Botter; so choose Booth's and always sak for it by mame,

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