1955-09-05 — Page 4

Page L

THE CHINA“ MAIL,

MONDAY, SEPTEMBER

WITH SHELLEY ROHDE IN MOSCOW

LIFE IN TWO ROOMS

FOR A COUPLE

to have one." Marla told me. "But it has been refused."

RUSSIAN woman's places, with contemporary for one, but cannot get a gar- home is her sanctuary, Swedish furniture, all mod, age, "We applied for permission the one place in which con. she feels secure from the outside world. ·

· Maria and her 43-year-old husband Andrei have settled

11

by

One day they hope to buy dacha." Those are the country homes of Moscow people. Not And foreign visitor in in one of the ramshackle, all are na lavish as the one in the Russian home is & Old Moscow blocks with which Prime Minister Bulganin But they are rare and privileged being. woggling windows and bird- gave his party,

rolling, wooded countryside. The protective wall that cage balconies. But it is large, airy, and surrounded surrounds each home is an their home and they earn intangible thing.

enough money to make the best of it. They have no You can dine with the children their son died Russians, dance with them, young.

So the two big rooms of

debate with them. You can meet them anywhere--any- where but in their homes. the flat are ample for their

I hit that wall so often in Moscow that I began to wonder if the people were ashamed of their homes. Now I am ashamed of my self for the thought.

It is an honour for a foreigner to be invited- invited, mind you to meet the people in their little

sanctuaries.

Her pride

YES, I did go into a Rus-

needs.

The official rate of exchange

in Kutaia now Is 11.2 roubles to the . I have been working my figures an that rate be- cause that is the rate 1 and the tourista iravel on.

But British Government offi-

cials there have a subaldised exchange of about 40 roubles to

Her Children

OR they could hire a ducha for

the suminer. 28-year-old

That is what

receptionist Vera Vasilevna and her hus-

hotel

band do. They have two girls below school age (children start school at soven) Lake them out during summer.

and like to of the town

In winter Vera ond family live in a three-roomed Moscow

and apartment,

pay the usua}

oľ their rent four percent total wages.

Cooking is done on a four- ring gas oven which Vera pays for each month

on the hire system. (Not "hire purchase" that

does not exist in Russia. an Vera told me.)

Bo

the . That is considered the genuine value of the rouble, if you want to work out accurate valuation of goods divide by 40.

machine.

TC-

sian home, I went In her kitchen Marla has a there as a friend of the washing young couple who invited frigerator, and a gas cooker.

me.

some

Ko

are

This young couple seldom out in the evenings, mainly be- cause they have a TV set. In Moscow the new Bims shown on TV, and reception-- I watched half the Dynamo v, Wolves football match on one- is good.

Her interest

Her everyone

And I went there on The washing machine is * the understanding that this small one that cost her. was a personal visit, not to years ago, 300 roubles (approxi- the fridge was mately £30); be written about. I am not double that price. going to write about it.

I took me a long time to get "She has an electric floor

this information from Vera. busy asking me I was promised another polisher for the shining wooden She was too

coal 200 roubles about houses in Britain. visit too--to the home of a floors that

nearly a de-luxe vacuum Interest-and hotel floor manageress and cleaner that cost about £60.

else's was insatiable. her journalist husband. But

But it is not Maria who does the painters and decorators

She works six were in, so they decided: the cleaning.

days a week from Dam. to ex, "Next time you come to She has a mald living in whom day in Moscow: "When I come Moscow you will visit us," she feeds and keeps and pays to England I want to meet the

the princely

of 2,000 people. sum

(£20)—and

It seemed to stem from the Prime Minister Bui- moment

on my first Sun- Kanin said,

Proudly, Maria Kroptkina roubles a month (£200) pocket maller." described to me the home I money. could not see.

"Not only trespassing but listening to a confounded band instead of cricket

London-Express Berrica

THE GIRL and THE HAT

E

XPERTS on dress

and costume claim that changes in fashion are not merely fortuitous, but re- flect

truly the manners, morals and psychology of their period. A curious in- cident that once happened to me almost persuades me the experts are right.

I saw the girl for the first time at the Rond Point of the Champs Elysees. She walked with all the silken

of who elegance

a pedigree saluki, the sort of Parisienne one expects to see in Paris and occasionally does.

tho

It is the people

Maybe the privacy of Russian homesteads stems from the top too. For not one son I met knew, or eared, where leaders bad their private homes. their Prime Minister or other or what they did in their spare

The rooms.

now being rede- corated, are painted light cream It is a small apartment in to off-set the heavy, Rusalan- red wood furniture-in- the centre of Moscow, a style, home such as many other herited from her mother.

The curtains are long and time.. one of the new skyscraper thick; the carpets are colourful. blocks that are mushroom-

families have. It is not in

Mario and Andrei want to

ing up on the outskirts of have

a car, They could the city. Those are invish afford the 9,000 roubles (£800).

(COPYRIGHT)

TOMORROW: Shopping in Moscow

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121

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- HONGKONG" and KOWLOON. <.

But before describing her any

I further perhaps should explain how I came. to be sitting in a jeep in the centre of Paris on that beau- tiful August day in 1944,

On the 25th, the fighting men of the Wessex Division.

had forced a crossing of the

DID

IT HAPPEN ?

FACT OR FICTION ? Is this story true? Here is another. problem for you to solve in this series of could-be-true tales. The answer will be published

tomorrow

6As she wont down'

he grabbed at the canvas bed, zipping Et open as he ran. Ho plunged in his and drow

hand

out a fat wad of notes

"But you must. Only as far as Maites. I must go at once ....I've had bad news,"

I hesitated, and she watched me with painful eagerness, There was, after all, no reasoni why I should not take her as far, as Mantes. It could do no hazm and sho Was clearly trouble....

She must have seen in my face that I would agree, because without another word she climbed into the jeep and not until we were moving did she say thank you.

She hald on her knees a canvas bag, one of the sort that ckuses with a zipper, and when I offered to put it in the back the politely refused. At first I tried to talk, but all she would "Quicker! Please go say was: quicker." L. accelerated-ittle, but not too much; I was leaving Paris and Heaven knew when I should see it again.

So when It happened it was easy for them.

the driver swung round and pulled up, completely blocking" the road.

We had just turned into the Bols when they came from be- Seine at Vernon, and by the the biggest banner I have attention was first drawn to the only for the day, and finally hand and passed us three men flew from the girl at the Rond Point for the asked her to have lunch with me. in battered open Renault which 28th the rest of the British ever seen

reason that her hat was quito She shook her head, Arc de becomingly unfashionable, being Second Army was pouring summit of the through this gateway and on Triomphe; every child was a perky

Uittre affair in black *I regret, Sir," she said in towards Amiens and a walking flagpole. And all straw.

English. "I am honoured that this visual splendour was. It was a pleasure to see how you invite Brussels.

me, but I cannot matched by the mood of it revealed her hair, long, accept. Today I am engaged for the 'Parisians.

hustrous, colled at the nape and dejeuner.".. useply brown like the satiny

For five days

An air of effervescent galety coat of a bay horse. It occurred She pervaded the streets, which even to me that a girl in Paris must smiled again and walked into made me a little bow, at that hour were

be either extremely dowdy

with

citizens

In one week they liberated the whole of Flanders, and alled

of that deck

docked out in their the inhabitants

best and seemingly ancient battleground began content to saunter and

gazc lovingly at their city, cleansed at last

to realise that for just this once they were to be spared the agonies of a protracted

from the staln struggle. They signified

of four abomin- their approval with No able years. reticence whatever, and the

Small groups. Second Army benefited ac- would meet and cordingly.

coalesce, laugh,

one and

and

But the men of Wessex embraco sat where they were and another rested for five days, and for diverge again. the headquarters and staff Little bursts of

cheering of a division, rest periods snatches of song during a campaign are times would suddenly of increased activity. This break out from is as it should be, but among a crowd sur those strenuous days there rounding some was one that I managed to Maquisard who, with slung rifle, keep as a holiday.

stood among them

liko

smart current

and

Running hard

I trod Kn everything and

steadily at my head. The girl looked up to find that the second man was aiming a rifle.very

and jumped out almost before and was running

excessively the side entrance of the Ritz. so to ignore the

I lunched. Where, I do not we stopped fashion,

i know, but it was not a grand hard, but the third man caught this girl was anything place and the eating part of the her in 10 yards and hit her on

but dowdy. Then, as she moal did not start till about the neck with the edge of his

three o'clo

o'clock. The preliminaries hand took a of me, I noted sided over, as I remember, by

by DONALD WILSON

ONALD 'WILSON wrote the TV serials The Mulberry Accelerator and The Six Proud Walkers. Born at Dunblane, Scotland. Wilson's schools were Wellington Col- Tege, and the Glasgow School of Art, his war-tima regimente the Cameronians and the 43rd (Wessex} Division. He also makes films. The 45-year- old Scot lives at Datcher,

crossed in frant

only

noi

the

long time and were pre- As she went down he grabbed

to the Renault, zipping it open

symmetry several small but hirsute French at the canvas bag and came back her gure but hang round my neck while the $3 ho ran. He plunged in his

with

A Httle shock of GUT-

saltors who took it' in turns to

* others ordered the drinka.

prise that her silk dress had been made in Douglas tartan the tartan of regiment.

A joyous time

There was also an Intolerable,

hand and drew out a lot wad of notes of high denomination by the look of them. The bag was full and must have coj“ tained a great deal of money,

The driver laughed exultantly amount of singing, accompanied and backed the Renault clear of by the inevitable accordian, the road. Too man with the that I was to Cer- flew it happened that French ride indicated

belloved I laughed.

tainly saluted.

I did so, but first I

sailors managed to be present at drive on. She turned her the liberation I cannot imagine, looked back again at the girl

brielly

head

heard her

faintly...

mouning

unless they swam up the Selne, who lay where she had dropped, ondi

and I gave me a but there they were, and little smile, the joyous time coolest, most

wae had by all,

parked, Immo-

aloof smile you The Jeep was

can imagine. bilised, the Place Vendome

Cropped head

The evening before, news wolf among spaniels until in a Then she stepped on to the and at five o'clock I arrived had come that Paris was fluttering of semaphoric gestures pavement and was soon absorbed there, alme, exhilarated, but The turban had fallen off and' free, and by dawn 1 was be would be swept into, the in the crowd.

remarkably. "sober, everything I saw that now she had no hair considered. down the nearest cafe, driving south

I was just fitting at all. Her head was cropped dusty white road. Presum-

What else was to be expected the rotor arm when I heard a and shaven to the bone. Weaving in end but among i had no idea, yet for a moment volge. ably I obtained leave, since the strollers were the young I sat there conscious of an odd no court-martial ensued, but men and women on bicycles, the sensation, a feeling almost of all I can remember is the incessant ringing of whose bells loss. I realized immediately the sunshine and the fresh was the dominant: sound abova morning air, the cloud of all others;

merry: Uttle dust behind me and the carilion announcing the end xf Joy of complete irresponsi- oppression. bility.

That

Since that day I have often "Please excuse me, Skr."

'thought about these grotesque, ‚' all-enveloping hats and it goemil At first I hardly recognised possibjo that the costume absurdity of such en emotion, her. She had changed her dress

gea exports may know what they however alight, so I started the and was wearing one of those ore about. For this was the

damnable turbans.

wds only year these hata were woen, Jeep and drove slowly on

the superficial difference, but and it was also the year that alka

was more. The air of over France the punishment of It was shortly before one The youths were brown and o'clock when I saw her again. She was terse, determined yet women

sophistication had gone, a cropped head was inflicted on loan in their striped singlota; was walking down

who were known to the Rue apprehensive, and in her eyes have collaborated with the wide, bright Cambon trying to

determine there was the look have seen enemy. patterned aklita that floated where to go for lunch and in the eyes of a wounded man

and, on thedr

look of horrified Incredulity,: WORLD COPYRIGHT BESERVED The road crosses the wide beads, those ridiculous two-foot deciding that it must be some loops of the Seine at several high turbon bats that for this there, ale was, on the other side and the words were slurred.

where very grand, and suddenly. She spoke quickly, in French, place between Vernon and telet season were all 'the ruge. Paris. Many bridges were Thosa, enormities, began high on of the street. I crossed over at #Are you leaving Paris?"

Biggest banner

the

girls wore

Around them,

down and I was often forced, the forehead and

came down once and spoke to her. to detour but by nino jow on the back of the neck,⠀⠀⠀ o'clock there I was, sitting completely covering the hair

``I nodded.

"You're going, to the North,

How do you know s

that?" Bath Destion A. i the

I beg you to..

By this time I-bad had two' or in the jeep and looking at a and giving to each woman that tree drinks and when that city dressed as if for a royal wore one the comle appearance happens my French" becomes aren't you?" wedding.

of a Turkish. Paths in a New rammatically fluent.", She listered with that, auro cool Yorker cartoon. There were flags every B

angsmile Was - 1: 'ercised. mgr Immu where. Each window and I have dwelt on this matter of pertinence, explained about the north loose take me with you, lamp-post carried ita triumminy s of what haps has and the tartari degen, " told to solour on Cross of Lorraine; pasact laberg

and certainly, hãy bee shes I war alone and LA PaclaĂ ̈HE Osn't do (bat”

DID IT REALLY HAPPEN?

NO

YES

Put your dick in the space, uhovi

gasther story: in the socios: be

Charles Landstone